Stone Age wall found at bottom of Baltic Sea
February 21, 2024 4:34 PM Subscribe
Stone age wall found at bottom of Baltic Sea may be Europe’s oldest megastructure. They think it may have been used to help hunt reindeer.
"A stone age wall discovered beneath the waves off Germany’s Baltic coast may be the oldest known megastructure built by humans in Europe, researchers say.
The wall, which stretches for nearly a kilometre along the seafloor in the Bay of Mecklenburg, was spotted by accident when scientists operated a multibeam sonar system from a research vessel on a student trip about 10km (six miles) offshore.
Closer inspection of the structure, named the Blinkerwall, revealed about 1400 smaller stones that appear to have been positioned to connect nearly 300 larger boulders, many of which were too heavy for groups of humans to have moved.
The submerged wall, described as a “thrilling discovery”, is covered by 21 metres of water, but researchers believe it was constructed by hunter-gatherers on land next to a lake or marsh more than 10,000 years ago.
While the purpose of the wall is hard to prove, scientists suspect it served as a driving lane for hunters in pursuit of herds of reindeer.
“When you chase the animals, they follow these structures, they don’t attempt to jump over them,” said Jacob Geersen at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde, a German port town on the Baltic coast.
“The idea would be to create an artificial bottleneck with a second wall or with the lake shore,” he added."
"A stone age wall discovered beneath the waves off Germany’s Baltic coast may be the oldest known megastructure built by humans in Europe, researchers say.
The wall, which stretches for nearly a kilometre along the seafloor in the Bay of Mecklenburg, was spotted by accident when scientists operated a multibeam sonar system from a research vessel on a student trip about 10km (six miles) offshore.
Closer inspection of the structure, named the Blinkerwall, revealed about 1400 smaller stones that appear to have been positioned to connect nearly 300 larger boulders, many of which were too heavy for groups of humans to have moved.
The submerged wall, described as a “thrilling discovery”, is covered by 21 metres of water, but researchers believe it was constructed by hunter-gatherers on land next to a lake or marsh more than 10,000 years ago.
While the purpose of the wall is hard to prove, scientists suspect it served as a driving lane for hunters in pursuit of herds of reindeer.
“When you chase the animals, they follow these structures, they don’t attempt to jump over them,” said Jacob Geersen at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde, a German port town on the Baltic coast.
“The idea would be to create an artificial bottleneck with a second wall or with the lake shore,” he added."
Seriously, this is really neat! Thanks for sharing (this and so many others).
posted by nat at 11:09 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
posted by nat at 11:09 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
Doggerland Reindeer Herder would be a pretty good username.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:02 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:02 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
Also chekkitout Lyonesse = Ennor = Scilly Isles. Now a teensie archipelago [area = 16km2, pop = 2k] off the SW extremity of England, owned by The Duchy of Cornwall. As recently as 500 years ago, the islands were rocky tors surrounding a flat fertile plane. You can see medieval field systems as you snorkel across from Tresco to Bryher. A prehistoric farm-steading is located on Nornour, an islet that is now far too small to support any agriculture.
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:55 AM on February 22 [4 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:55 AM on February 22 [4 favorites]
I was thinking about Doggerland too but that's in the North Sea and this is the Baltic. It's kind of amazing that these sunken areas don't even seem to be all that deep but it's deep enough that things like this can be hidden for so long. I wonder how viable it would be to use drones to scan the shallower seas and lakes using LIDAR or something similar and then have AI look for humanmade structures.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:26 AM on February 22
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:26 AM on February 22
« Older Like Roy Moore never left | Steven Richard Miller 1950-2024 Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by kensington314 at 6:25 PM on February 21 [20 favorites]