Ravenser Odd: The Quest for English Atlantis


Scientists from the University of Hull consider they’ve discovered the island of Ravenser Odd, which disappeared utterly beneath the ocean in 1362The discovery of rocks and masonry on the coast only a few meters under the floor of the water, has brought about euphoria Ravenser Odd was one of the affluent ports within the area resulting from its strategic location on the Humber estuary

Ravenser Odd is a metropolis discovered on the backside of the ocean. It is taken into account the English Atlantic and a staff of scientists from the University of Hull believes they’ve discovered it. It would lie within the North Sea, within the estuary of the River Humber, on the Spurn Peninsula, a protracted islet of sand, nearer to the coast than had been believed for seven centuries. Historians and scientists believed it lay on the backside of the ocean two kilometers offshore, however a brand new search nearer to shore not too long ago found rocks and masonry only a few meters under the floor of the water.

Following this discovery, a scientific operation was launched to seek out it led by Professor Dan Parsons, a sediment geoscientist on the University of Hull. With his staff he has deployed sonar gear just like the one used to seek out the Titanic in hopes of discovering the harbor partitions of the misplaced metropolis of Ravenser Odd. They are additionally guided by the testimonies of the fishermen within the space who say that they’ve observed delicate variations within the floor of the water. It is believed that town and the island have been buried beneath the sand on the backside of the ocean all through the 700 years because it disappeared. They are analyzing the underside of the ocean.

“It is fascinating, thrilling. The actual location of this medieval metropolis has by no means been recognized, Parsons defined to ‘The Sun’. “Now now we have the instruments and the know-how to exit and find it as soon as and for all. We hope to seek out traces of town, together with its foundations, the port and the boardwalk.” Once they discover it, their plan can be to map it, create a 3D map, after which ship divers to the location.

the raven’s tongue

Experts say that the discovering of Ravenser Odd (a reputation from the Old Norse which means “raven’s tongue”) might be in comparison with the 18th century discovery of town of Pompeii, which disappeared beneath the lava of Vesuvius in 79 AD or like the identical legendary island of Atlantis talked about in Plato’s dialogues that nobody but is aware of if it actually existed. Most of what we learn about Ravenser Odd comes from the medieval chronicles of the Cistercian Abbey of Meaux, which paperwork stories of inquisitions and concessions, citing the granting of a royal constitution granting an annual market and honest to this village. .

The metropolis was based across the 12 months 1235 AD, based on the declaration of the jury throughout an inquisition held in 1276 that stated: “Forty years in the past and extra, the rising of the ocean brought about stones and sand to build up, and on them, the Count of Aumale started to construct a sure city referred to as Ravenserodd (because it was additionally identified), and it’s an island, the ocean surrounds it. The island was situated on the Spurn Peninsula. In time it grew to become a nationally vital metropolis with a bustling port with docks and warehouses that collected dues from over 100 ships a 12 months, even named by Shakespeare in his performs.

It got here to compete with the principle ports within the space, akin to Hull, Grimsby or Kingston upon Hull, which had been situated contained in the mouth of the Humber, and surpassed them. Cargo ships and fishing boats stopped at Ravenser Odd, on the head of the estuary, due to its strategic place. The retailers started to earn cash, to get wealthy. Ravenser Odd counted two deputies within the London parliament, a church, a jail, a courthouse, windmills, two markets every week, and an annual honest. Around 1340 town’s prosperity started to say no resulting from coastal erosion.

The Flood

A royal inquisition held in 1346 documented that two-thirds of the Ravenser Odd had been misplaced at sea. An account by a Meaux Abbey chronicler of the time wrote: “At that point, Ravenser’s chapel and a lot of the buildings in the entire village of Ravenser had been nearly utterly destroyed by flooding from the ocean and the river Humber. growing greater than regular.

Contemporary accounts report scenes of looting and devastation, and a mass exodus of merchants to Hull, additional up the Humber. By 1356-57, town had been utterly inundated and by 1362 it had succumbed to the ocean through the flood of Saint Marcellus (referring to the Pope of Rome on the time), because the storm that swept by means of England, the Netherlands and the north is thought. from Germany on January 16, 1362 killing between 50,000 and 100,000 folks. The disappearance of town was gradual. Its inhabitants left little by little.

The Yorkshire coast, the place the Humber estuary and the Spurn peninsula meet, is the realm of ​​the island of Great Britain that erodes the quickest because of the gentle clay from which it’s shaped. Several settlements have already disappeared beneath the waves all through historical past. Climate change scientists forecast a world rise in sea ranges of 1 meter by the top of the century. Professor Parsons is considered one of many investigating the way it will have an effect on the Yorkshire shoreline. With the Ravenser Odd discover, he hopes to acquire key knowledge on this regard.