Ravenser Odd: British researchers want to rediscover sunken city under water

archeology
British researchers want to rediscover sunken city under water

A team of British scientists has set out in search of a lost city – and is confident that they have found its former location. They now want to find the remains of Ravenser Odd and free them from silt and sand in order to research the history of the medieval trading metropolis. Ravenser Odd was situated on the banks of the Humber, where the rivers Trent and Ouse meet the North Sea. “There were two marketplaces there, there were warehouses, a large fleet of fishing boats. It could at least compete with the nearby towns of Grimsby and Hull,” says author Phil Mathison, who wrote a book about the lost city.

But Ravenser Odd, which was located directly on the Humber coast, fell victim to a catastrophe that also had serious consequences in Germany at the time: in 1362 the North Sea became an all-consuming monster and tore the town, which had been eroding for several years before had struggled underwater. “The Second Great Drowning” is the name of the storm surge in British vernacular, in Germany it is known as “Grote Mandrenke”, the great drowning of people. She is also blamed for the sinking of the German North Sea town of Rungholt.

Underwater dunes could reveal location

So, if the scientists are right, they could find numerous artifacts beneath the mud at the bottom of the Humber that no one has seen or touched since 1362. Valuable knowledge about everyday life in the Middle Ages could be drawn from this – especially since organic materials such as wood are surprisingly well preserved under water. The team led by Professor Dan Parsons from the University of Hull is currently searching the bottom of the Humber with a sonar device and has already identified a promising area. “The investigations that we have done so far have shown numerous sand dunes under water, some several meters high,” says the scientist. “The settlement will be covered with hundreds of years of sand and mud, and they’re obscuring the foundations we’re looking for.”

The researchers are currently being slowed down again and again by bad weather conditions. “We’re very confident that there’s something there and we just have to be in the right place at the right time with the sonar,” Parsons told the BBC. And Ravenser Odd’s find would not only make archaeologists happy, but possibly also help climate researchers: “When we are facing uncertain times, due to climate change and the massive changes predicted to the coasts in the next 100 years, it would certainly be extremely important to to learn from these stories of the past.”

Source: BBC

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