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Recursion

(56,582 posts) Mon Feb 24, 2014, 03:35 AM Feb 2014

Prehistoric forest arises in Cardigan Bay after storms strip away sand

Very cool

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/20/prehistoric-forest-borth-cardigan-bay-wales

A prehistoric forest, an eerie landscape including the trunks of hundreds of oaks that died more than 4,500 years ago, has been revealed by the ferocious storms which stripped thousands of tons of sand from beaches in Cardigan Bay.

The forest of Borth once stretched for miles on boggy land between Borth and Ynyslas, before climate change and rising sea levels buried it under layers of peat, sand and saltwater.

Scientists have identified pine, alder, oak and birch among the stumps which are occasionally exposed in very stormy winters, such as in 2010, when a stretch of tree remains was revealed conveniently opposite the visitor centre.

The skeletal trees are said to have given rise to the local legend of a lost kingdom, Cantre'r Gwaelod, drowned beneath the waves. The trees stopped growing between 4,500 and 6,000 years ago, as the water level rose and a thick blanket of peat formed.

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Prehistoric forest arises in Cardigan Bay after storms strip away sand (Original Post) Recursion Feb 2014 OP

4,500 years ago is hardly "prehistoric" Scootaloo Feb 2014 #1

If there aren't written records, it's "prehistoric" Recursion Feb 2014 #2

England didn't start writing its own records until the 6thc ... ananda Feb 2014 #3

Geeks and Romans wrote about England before that Recursion Feb 2014 #4

Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)

1. 4,500 years ago is hardly "prehistoric"

Reply to Recursion (Original post)

Mon Feb 24, 2014, 05:54 AM

Feb 2014

And before that, there was Doggerland:

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

2. If there aren't written records, it's "prehistoric"

Reply to Scootaloo (Reply #1)

Mon Feb 24, 2014, 05:59 AM

Feb 2014

England didn't have written records (that we know of) at the time.

ananda

(28,876 posts)

3. England didn't start writing its own records until the 6thc ...

Reply to Recursion (Reply #2)

Mon Feb 24, 2014, 06:14 AM

Feb 2014

... or thereabouts, after St. Augustine came in 597 to
convert the heathens and establish monasteries. Until
then the various languages were mostly spoken, and
there was no Latinized alphabet, only runes.

Even then, most literate scribes wrote in Latin. Old English
became more systematic for historical purposes during the
late 9thc when King Alfred sponsored translations and did
his own writing in OE. Then we start getting more consistent
histories such as Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English
Church, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and of course the
translation of St. Jerome's Vulgate bible, along with the
great literature of poems and epics including Beowulf, still
mostly extant, and Waldere, mostly lost.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)

4. Geeks and Romans wrote about England before that

Reply to ananda (Reply #3)

Mon Feb 24, 2014, 06:19 AM

Feb 2014

Without documents a historian can't really do anything; it's up to the archaeologist. Places and times without written records (domestic or foreign) are prehistoric.

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