An attempt to remap Europe and claim back the lost territories of the North Sea
- office [at] doggerland [dot] net
The Doggers
For the last few weeks, I have been in contact with Sandra Dogger Klassen. Sandra’s interest in Doggerland stems from her family name “Dogger”, which, she says, dates back to the 17th-century Netherlands, when her ancestors would sail Dogger ships on to the Dogger Bank to catch dog fish (ie cod). I asked Sandra to [...]
Part two: Claiming territory
In charting Doggerland’s territory, I suppose it almost goes without saying that the North Sea should be included in its entirety. Although there is some dispute about quite where the limits of the sea are, the most widely accepted view is to follow those stated in the International Hydrographic Organization’s 1953 publication Limits of Oceans [...]
Part one: Nation building
Before I embark on mapping this territory, I think I should initially give Doggerland a (provisional) identity. The flag is based on a section of the dazzle on the SS War Drake, built in Glasgow in 1918. A dazzle-painted model of the ship is held by the Riverside Museum. In a letter to The Times [...]
A hypothetical landscape
In the Prehistoric Society’s 1998 annual journal, the archaeologist Bryony Coles contributed a survey of the land that had once existed under the southern North Sea.* She named this place “Doggerland” (after the Dogger sandbank) and pointed to evidence of a distinct landscape and a unique people who had left behind tools different from those [...]
