librarian
Well-known member
I am always trying to connect the dots between the pre Roman native cattle of Scotland and a Scandinavian origin.
The author of this book made some very good arguments for such an origin by pointing out similarities in skulls from Sweden and Scotland. When the Romans arrived, the locals had small cattle that they coexisted with. The Romans quickly started eating these cattle because the meat was better than their continental type. (sorry, can't remember the source)
The popular idea at that time was that the wild cattle of Britain were descended from the Aurochs, but the author of this book wasn't buying it.
Notes on the Ancient Cattle of Scotland
https://books.google.com/books?id=rdkRAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA586&pg=PA586#v=onepage&q&f=false
Anyway, maybe event everyone knows this, but I did not know about this ancient land bridge and Doggerland.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland
Quote
During the most recent glaciation, the Last Glacial Maximum that ended in this area around 18,000 years ago, the North Sea and almost all of the British Isles were covered with glacial ice and the sea level was about 120 m (390 ft) lower than it is today. After that the climate became warmer and during the Late Glacial Maximum much of the North Sea and English Channel was an expanse of low-lying tundra, around 12,000 BC extending to the modern northern point of Scotland.[6]
Evidence including the contours of the present seabed shows that after the first main Ice Age, the watershed between the North Sea and the English Channel extended east from East Anglia then south-east to the Hook of Holland rather than across the Strait of Dover and that the Thames, Meuse, Scheldt and Rhine joined and flowed along the English Channel dry bed as a wide slow river that flowed far before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.[3][6] At about 8000 BC the north-facing coastal area of Doggerland had a coastline of lagoons, saltmarshes, mudflats and beaches as well as inland streams, rivers, marshes and sometimes lakes. It may have been the richest hunting, fowling and fishing ground in Europe in the Mesolithic period.[3][7]
The author of this book made some very good arguments for such an origin by pointing out similarities in skulls from Sweden and Scotland. When the Romans arrived, the locals had small cattle that they coexisted with. The Romans quickly started eating these cattle because the meat was better than their continental type. (sorry, can't remember the source)
The popular idea at that time was that the wild cattle of Britain were descended from the Aurochs, but the author of this book wasn't buying it.
Notes on the Ancient Cattle of Scotland
https://books.google.com/books?id=rdkRAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA586&pg=PA586#v=onepage&q&f=false
Anyway, maybe event everyone knows this, but I did not know about this ancient land bridge and Doggerland.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland
Quote
During the most recent glaciation, the Last Glacial Maximum that ended in this area around 18,000 years ago, the North Sea and almost all of the British Isles were covered with glacial ice and the sea level was about 120 m (390 ft) lower than it is today. After that the climate became warmer and during the Late Glacial Maximum much of the North Sea and English Channel was an expanse of low-lying tundra, around 12,000 BC extending to the modern northern point of Scotland.[6]
Evidence including the contours of the present seabed shows that after the first main Ice Age, the watershed between the North Sea and the English Channel extended east from East Anglia then south-east to the Hook of Holland rather than across the Strait of Dover and that the Thames, Meuse, Scheldt and Rhine joined and flowed along the English Channel dry bed as a wide slow river that flowed far before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.[3][6] At about 8000 BC the north-facing coastal area of Doggerland had a coastline of lagoons, saltmarshes, mudflats and beaches as well as inland streams, rivers, marshes and sometimes lakes. It may have been the richest hunting, fowling and fishing ground in Europe in the Mesolithic period.[3][7]
