Europe's Lost World

Everything is heading back to base and the team will be trying...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 11:56:56 +0100

Everything is heading back to base and the team will be trying deal with the Post-Exhibit Exhaustion! – Once again, many thanks to all of you who turned up to the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, and also thankyou to those of you who followed us on the web. It’s a wonderful experience to meet you all and see so many people enthused about science.

Here’s a lovely image of what the lost land of Doggerland...

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:01:43 +0100

Here’s a lovely image of what the lost land of Doggerland may have looked like. Ynyshir in Ceredigion (Wales) has many habitats which are reminiscent of those in the Mesolithic, and pollen from many of the species present in this image has been found in core samples recovered from the North Sea. Many thanks to Denis Bates for image.

A quiet moment before the crowds arrived - the number of...

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:58:00 +0100

A quiet moment before the crowds arrived - the number of visitors yesterday was fantastic and more are expected today - all in all it looks like its going to be a very exciting exhibition.

After a final run through, the display has been set up and road...

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:29:12 +0100

After a final run through, the display has been set up and road tested. Here’s a quick sneak peak of the back of the display - all assembled and ready to go !

See you all at the exhibition !

Here are a couple of mystery objects from our replica collection...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:14:00 +0100

Mystery Object 1......

Mystery Object 2.....

Here are a couple of mystery objects from our replica collection - can you guess what they are, and how they were used in the landscape of Doggerland ?

All will be revealed at the exhibit !

Just a quick update to let you all see the game in action !

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:50:55 +0100

Just a quick update to let you all see the game in action !

Finally the bow is complete - Mark has worked hard using the...

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:19:00 +0100

Finally the bow is complete - Mark has worked hard using the adze to produce the rough shape of the bow, and then has smoothed out the wood with a flint scraper. The final step has been to sand the sides with a sandstone block to give the bow a good finish.

The bow is now finished and ready for the exhibition !

For those of you who have asked, Mark who has made our replica bow can be contacted at mesoknapper@yahoo.co.uk

To shape the limbs of the bow, a carving adze has had to be...

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:50:00 +0100

To shape the limbs of the bow, a carving adze has had to be made. The shaft is in ash and the adze is carved from antler. It’s been lashed together using red deer leather which has been soaked for 24 hours. This is because on drying the leather clamps everything together tight and helps stop the shaft from splitting during usage. Now all that has to be done is to use it !

Our replicas are currently being created by the very talented Mark Keighley

Replic production for the exhibit continues apace - this week...

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:10:00 +0100

Replic production for the exhibit continues apace - this week it’s a spot experimental archaeology in the form of bow making. At the moment, Mark has split the wood and is now being preparing for working the limbs of the bow. We’ll pop up more photo’s as the experiment progresses….

This is the development leading up to the science exhibition,...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:35:00 +0100

This is the development leading up to the science exhibition, demonstrating key features of the simple game of finding a location for our Mesolithic friends to live. Algorithums for the building of villages, agent navigation, scoring and leaderboard are all now done. All that remains is a small amount of fine tuning, so all looks good for gaming at the exhibition. See you there !

We’re getting on well with the game. The game’s user...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:50:14 +0100

We’re getting on well with the game. The game’s user interface has been developed and will make interacting with the game both simple and straightforward. It has been deisgned to make the game accessible to the widest range of players. The next step is to build the scoring system and leader board …..(!)

We are currently having some replica stone tools made by Mark...

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:43:00 +0100

We are currently having some replica stone tools made by Mark Keighley for demonstration on the exhibit.

The first image shows the basic knapping tool kit which is used. This consists of a small hammer stone, as well as small and large antler hammers and a leather hand guard.

The second image shows the results, so far using a north sea flint cobble. On the left of the photo is the remains of the source material, in the middle the completed scraper and on the right, the resultant debitage.

All looking good, and we’ll be sure to have some interesting things for you to see and handle at the exhibit.

summer-science: Ever had a scientist explain their work to you...

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:51:17 +0100

summer-science:

Ever had a scientist explain their work to you while canoeing off the coast of Scotland? Well here’s your chance with to Dr Richard Bates from the Drowned landscapes exhibit.

You can see our other exhibition videos here www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7AB285E3994232C6

The rest of the exhibition website can be found here www.royalsociety.org/sciencelive

The work on the submerged landscapes in Orkney is currently hitting the local news - click on this link for more details !

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:44:00 +0100

The work on the submerged landscapes in Orkney is currently hitting the local news - click on this link for more details !

Progress on the game continues apace: the touch table survival...

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:56:34 +0100

Progress on the game continues apace: the touch table survival game now has touch navigation with zooming features, so this stage is now complete. The next step will be to develop the logic of the game and the user interface buttons that will allow users to accomplish the game tasks.

This is a video blog of the current progress of the game in...

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:03:00 +0100

This is a video blog of the current progress of the game in which visitors can participate in at the Summer Exhibition. At present the touch table navigation is being developed - so watch this space for more videos soon !

Some of the project team are currently undertaking geophysical...

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:33:00 +0100

Dr. Martin Bates surveying at Happisburg

An interesting find from the shore

Some of the project team are currently undertaking geophysical survey at Happisburgh at the moment. Happisburgh is an important archaeological site, where stone tools showed that humans occupied the area some 800,000 years ago, and thus is the oldest evidence for human occupation anywhere in the UK. The current results are promising and the team also found a very interesting find whilst working, we’ll let you know what it is later……

There has been a fair bit of progress on the game over the...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:33:00 +0100

There has been a fair bit of progress on the game over the Easter Break. The scene has now been finalised, along with all the props and people - all they need now is just a bit of tidying up. Additionally, all the general motor function and reactive behaviour is now done. The game will allow people to move around the landscape and at the end of a timed session, pick a location for the best survival location (food, resources, safety) to build a village. After that we’ll send in the calamities (Water rising, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and a UFO invasion, - just joking for the last four hazards !), and the more the village comes out unscathed, the higher the points will be. The next task is to think about appropriate prizes for the highest scores !

We thought it would be good to show you an agent based computer...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:07:00 +0100

We thought it would be good to show you an agent based computer model, created by Dr. Eugene Ch’ng, which the exhibit’s game is being based upon. This movie shows a Mesolithic person walking around the North Sea landscape looking for resources (the agents thoughts are shown as pictograms) and eventually a place to call home. This agent uses artifical intelligence to find its own way around the landscape, however for the exhibit we’ll be using your skills and imagination to survive.

The project team have been delighted to find that the submerged landscape of Doggerland has recently...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:12:00 +0100

The project team have been delighted to find that the submerged landscape of Doggerland has recently been immortalised as a limerick. We hope this brightens your day as much as it did ours.

Doggerland

Back in Doggerland (landmass of old):

We were freezing our nuts off with cold.

But with warmth comes surprise,

For as sea levels rise

We’re seceding from Europe, I’m told.

by Andrew Burnett.

Note: Doggerland was a landmass in northern Europe, which existed from the end of the last Ice Age until about 6300BC. As the ice melted and the sea level rose, pasts of it were flooded, separating Britain from the European mainland.