Atlantis

The time is 9,500 BC. The great ice mass, that once covered nearly all of Britain and Northern Europe, has over hundreds of years of warming, split into two, one mass retreating to the North now forming an arc from Scotland to Norway, the other retreating South to the Alpine region. Their melt waters have been flowing onto the new low lying land between them, land that at first formed a land bridge between Britain and Europe. As the melt waters increase, a great shallow freshwater lake has gradually, formed dotted with islets.

Beyond the city ring dyke, and threaded with islets of reeds, the light brown shallow waters of the great inland lake went on and on, stretching away on all sides towards a horizon beyond which he knew lay low rounded hills. From the reed thickets bitterns boomed and herons stabbed for eels on the mud flat edges.

Out here in the cool open water, fish were plentiful; a shoal of arctic char churned the calm surface. It was a late summer evening and the sun’s rays had weakened in the west to orange, slanting low on the surface, now peppered with the black shapes of many waterfowl; large flocks of widgeon, tufted duck and teal, their calling and flapping carrying clearly across the surface. Here and there a pair of mute swans with cygnets floated like royalty above their smaller subjects. A dagger shape of geese flew low then wiffled downwards for a watery night roost amongst their kin.

It had not rained for many days and the lake had moved lower exposing mud and sand bars. Flocks of waders probed busily with their beaks.

Vlado set the sail on the reed boat and, catching the cool evening breeze, turned

and set course for the outer ring dyke, which lay green in the distance. While the air around him pulsed with the calls of birds and wing beats the reed boat made barely a rippling sound.

Not for nothing was the lake called the bird sea, for here they were numerous.

Small tribes lived in the marshes, some on floating reed houses others on low islets of shingle or mud. They met their own need but traded with the city for amber, stone implements skins and women. For the lifeblood of the city was trade. It lay at the mouth of a great river down which came traders with goods and ideas, some said all the way from snow capped peaks to the south.

The marsh people used the reeds not only to make rafts and houses for themselves, but they made boats, sturdy and capable of sailing on the open lake.

It was in one of these that Vlado had explored the far reaches of the lake .The big reed boat drawing little water from its reed bundle hull, was ideal for the shallow lake.

It was in boats like these that some of his people had left the city and set up trading colonies.

Vlado steered for the wooden dock by the watergate.

This outer ring dyke was two fields wide, a grass topped banking of mud and shingle. On its flat top grazed sheep tended by a few boys in short tunics. There were also small circular enclosures with high stone walls to keep the animals off. Here were special plots where plants were grown for the queen and the royal household.

At

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: alastair macleod
Bildmaterialien: richard stonier
Lektorat: alastair macleod
Übersetzung: cover typeset in classical
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.12.2012
ISBN: 978-3-7309-0101-4

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Widmung:
"to the people who once lived beneath the North Sea"