What lies beneath! Perhaps great, past, unknown civilizations can be found on the floor of our oceans!
More surprises from the Stone Age!
"During a research cruise to map an underwater ridge off the German coast in 2021, ... took acoustic scans of the bottom of the Baltic Sea. But something strange emerged from their images: A line of objects, 21 meters down, ran across the sea floor for nearly 1 kilometer. Most were between the size of a tennis ball and a soccer ball. Others were as large as small cars, up to 3 meters across. “We didn’t think it was likely to be of geologic origin, but that’s where our knowledge stopped,” says Geersen, a marine geologist at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research. ..."
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
Structures from the Stone Age can provide unique insights into Late Glacial and Mesolithic cultures around the Baltic Sea. Such structures, however, usually did not survive within the densely populated Central European subcontinent. Here, we explore a Stone Age megastructure, that has preserved under water in the Western Baltic Sea. It was likely constructed by hunter–gatherer groups more than 10000 y ago and ultimately drowned during the Littorina transgression at 8500 y B.P. Since then, it remained hidden at the seafloor, leading to a pristine preservation that will inspire research on the lifestyle and territorial development in the larger area.
Abstract
The Baltic Sea basins, some of which only submerged in the mid-Holocene, preserve Stone Age structures that did not survive on land. Yet, the discovery of these features is challenging and requires cross-disciplinary approaches between archeology and marine geosciences. Here, we combine shipborne and autonomousunderwater vehicle hydroacoustic data with up to a centimeter range resolution, sedimentological samples, and optical images to explore a Stone Age megastructure located in 21 m water depth in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany. The structure is made of 1,673 individual stones which are usually less than 1 m in height, placed side by side over a distance of 971 m in a way that argues against a natural origin by glacial transport or ice push ridges. Running adjacent to the sunken shoreline of a paleolake (or bog), whose youngest phase was dated to 9,143 ±36 ka B.P., the stonewall was likely used for hunting the Eurasian reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) during the Younger Dryas or early Pre-Boreal. It was built by hunter–gatherer groups that roamed the region after the retreat of the Weichselian Ice Sheet. Comparable Stone Age megastructures have become known worldwide in recent times but are almost unknown in Europe. The site represents one of the oldest documented man-made hunting structures on Earth, and ranges among the largest known Stone Age structure in Europe. It will become important for understanding subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, and inspire discussions concerning the territorial development in the Western Baltic Sea region."
Graphic reconstruction of the hunting structure in a late glacial/early Holocene landscape, based on bathymetric data and an underwater 3D model of the recently discovered stonewall at the bottom of the Baltic Sea .
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