Scotland's first inhabitation pushed back to c. 14,000 years ago

New archaeological evidence from South Lanarkshire push back the first colonization of Scotland to c. 14,000 years ago, quite earlier than known before in the same area.

Like the previous findings, these older tools appear to belong to the Hamburgian culture which spanned the North Sea, being probably established in Doggerland, and is best known from its Low German and Danish sites.

According to The Courier:

Previously, the oldest evidence of human occupation [in Scotland] could be dated to around 13,000 years ago at a now-destroyed cave site in Argyll.

It is thought the hunters who left behind the flint remains came into Scotland in pursuit of game, possibly wild horses and reindeer, at a time when the climate improved following severe glacial conditions. 

These glacial conditions returned around 13,000 years ago and Scotland was once again depopulated, probably for another 1,000 years, after which new groups of people with different types of flint tools made an appearance.

Sources: The Archaeological News Network, The Courier.

Ancient tsunamis of Europe

In red the tsunami sediments
Measures: height of the wave at each location

A huge tsunami probably hit the northern parts of Doggerland (the emerged landmass of what is now the North Sea) some 8000 years ago. The evidence from this catastrophic event, which probably affected the earliest inhabitants of NW Europe in a catastrophic way comes from an underwater formation off the Norwegian coast known as Storegga, which was partly demolished by the force of the giant wave, as well as from sedimentary layers at various coastal locations. The wave reached more than 20 meters at the Shetlands, where it left a 30cm-thick revealing layer.

Another possible tsunami may have affected the Southwestern coasts of Iberia in the 7th century BCE. This is currently being researched and could be related to the collapse of the semi-mythical city of Tartessos.

Sources: Meteoweb[it], Paleorama[es] (→ link 1, link 2).