Mysterious megastructure called Underwater Stonehenge found at the bottom of the sea
A MYSTERY megastructure called the Underwater Stonehenge has been found at the bottom of the sea.
The ancient underwater wall, estimated to be around 10,000 years old, could even be 'the oldest structure in Europe' as scientists try to find out exactly what it is and where it came from.
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The wall, made of 1,670 stones and stretching for more than half a mile, was located about 65 feet below the Baltic Sea and about six miles off the coast of Rerik, Germany.
The discovery was made by researchers and students from the University of Kiel in Germany during a marine geophysical survey along the seabed of Mecklenburg Bay.
The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Office for Culture and Monument Conservation was quickly alerted, before diving teams and an autonomous underwater vehicle were sent to investigate.
Because the rocks were too perfectly aligned to have been created by natural events, the team decided that the wall was likely built more than 10,000 years ago by Stone Age communities to hunt reindeer.
A study describing the structure was published in the journal on Monday (Feb. 12). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It explains how the wall's location and proximity to water mean it was likely used by hunters to funnel reindeer into a “choke point” so they could be killed more easily.
“At that time, the entire population in Northern Europe was probably less than 5,000 people,” says study co-author Dr. Marcel Bradtmöller, research assistant in prehistory and early history at the University of Rostock in Germany.
“One of their main food sources were herds of reindeer, which migrated seasonally across the sparsely vegetated post-glacial landscape.
“The wall was probably used to guide the reindeer to a choke point between the adjacent lake shore and the wall, or even to the lake, where Stone Age hunters could more easily kill them with their weapons.”
The hunter-gatherers used spears, bows and arrows to catch their prey, Bradtmöller said, and likely led the reindeer into the lake because they were slow swimmers.
Lead study author Dr. Jacob Geersen, a senior scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Germany, believes the hunter-gatherer community recognized that the deer would follow the wall.
“It seems that the animals are attracted to such linear structures and prefer to follow the structure rather than trying to cross it, even if it is only 0.5 meters high,” he said.
To analyze how the region has evolved to determine the estimated age of the wall, the research team collected sediment samples from the rocks.
They then created a 3D model of the wall and virtually reconstructed the landscape where it was originally built.
According to the study authors, the wall was flooded and submerged at the end of the last ice age due to rising sea levels.
But the discovery of the wall could now change the way researchers think about highly mobile groups like hunter-gatherers.
Bradtmöller explains how building a massive permanent structure like the wall implies that these regional groups may have been more location-oriented and territorial than previously thought.
Other prehistoric hunting structures have been found elsewhere in the world, including the United States and Greenland.
And in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, researchers have discovered traps known as “desert flyers.”
But the latest discovery marks the first Stone Age hunting complex found in the Baltic Sea.
But researchers are not stopping there: scientists are continuing their research in the Baltic Sea using sonar and sounding equipment, and are also planning future dives to search for archaeological finds.
It is hoped that other undiscovered treasures at the bottom of the Baltic Sea can shed more light on ancient hunter-gatherer communities.
“We have evidence for the existence of similar stone walls at other locations in Mecklenburg Bay,” said study co-author Dr. Jens Schneider von Deimling.
“These will also be systematically investigated.”