- A prehistoric lost world deep under the North Sea where
man once hunted animals has been mapped by scientists with the help of
earthquake data.
-
- A team of archaeologists, geologists and engineers from
the University of Birmingham have combined the latest computer techniques
to devise a 3D reconstruction of the 10,000-year-old plain.
-
- The virtual features they have developed include a 600m-wide
river the length of the Thames which disappeared when its valley flooded
due to glaciers melting.
-
- The plain, part of a land mass that once joined Britain
to northern Europe, disappeared about 8,000 years ago and was previously
unknown to scientists.
-
- Professor Bob Stone, head of the Department of Engineering's
Human Interface Technology Team, said: "This is the most exciting
and challenging virtual reality project since Virtual Stonehenge in 1996.
-
- "Not only are we working with our colleagues in
archaeology to ensure the visual accuracy of this very rich environment,
we are basing the topography of the virtual landscape on actual seismic
data and the computer-generated flora on pollen and plant traces extracted
from geological core samples retrieved from the sea bed."
-
- Dr Vincent Gaffney, director of the University's Institute
of Archaeology and Antiquity and lead investigator on the project added:
"We intend to extend the project to visualise the whole of the now
submerged land bridge that previously joined Britain to northern Europe
as one land mass, providing scientists with a new insight into the previous
human occupation of the North Sea."
-
- ©2004 Scotsman.com
-
- http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2534078
|
