Britain's lost Atlantis: Stone Age artefacts on the seabed

Discovery reveals more on prehistoric land under North Sea

- DAVID KEYS

Archaeologists are beginning to reveal the secrets of a vanished prehistoric land that now lies at the bottom of the North Sea.

Using special dredges, scientists have just brought to the surface 100 flint artefacts made by Stone Age humans between 15,000 and 8,000 years ago. The artefacts – a number of small flint cutting tools, as well as dozens of flint flakes from toolmanufacturing activity – were recovered from the seabed in three different locations on the southern coast of the prehistoric drowned land.

Each newly discovered ancient site, some 20m below the stormy surface of the North Sea, is located next to a series of longvanished estuaries. The sites – 12 to 15 miles off the Norfolk coast – are expected to yield hundreds more artefacts, which will begin to reveal how the people of the lost land lived.

It is thought their economy revolved around hunting red deer and wild boar and harvesting shellfish. Parts of the bottom of the North Sea are of huge archaeological importance because they have been relatively untouched by humans since they were inundated between 10,000 and 7,500 years ago.