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Divers working off the coast of Rostock, Germany have discovered the broken remains of a wall at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Researchers believe the Stone Age construction is more than 10,000 years old, potentially making it the oldest human megastructure in Europe, and was probably used to gather prey during hunting expeditions.
This wall dates from a time when the local sea level was low. About 8,500 years ago, sea levels rose and swallowed the structure, which now lies at a depth of 69 feet (21 m). As the team wrote in their paper describing the discovery, published In this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the wall is “exciting” not only for its age but because of its socio-cultural implications.
The paper cites the words of archaeologist Ashley Lemke of the University of Texas at Arlington, who said that “permanent hunting structures anchor [the foragers] Certain locations on the landscape create socio-political and economic tensions related to ownership, territoriality, leadership, labor aggregation, group size and other social dynamics. In other words, the discovery of the wall indicates that a certain group (or perhaps several groups) had enough claim to the now submerged land, and enough manpower, that they were able to build and use massive architecture.
The approximately 0.6-mile (1-kilometer) long wall is composed of an estimated 1,673 rocks, most of which weigh less than 220 pounds (100 kg). However, it is several hundred stones heavier; The largest is 25,100 pounds (11,389 kg). Its height generally does not exceed 3 feet (1 meter). When the structure was still above water, it flowed along the edge of an ancient lake or swamp. The location of the stones “argues against a natural origin by glacial transport or ice pushing peaks,” the team writes in the paper.
humansa wise manbut also our closest cousins, homo neanderthalensis,modify the landscape around them Making tools, creating fire and establishing settlements. Some of the largest-scale changes to the landscape have been made for hunting.
Archaeologists found in 2022 Hundreds of pits around Stonehenge In south-western England. That team concluded that these pits predate Stonehenge by thousands of years, and that they were likely traps for large prey such as red deer, boar and aurochs. Changes in the hunting environment were occurring throughout the world; Last year, archaeologists in Saudi Arabia found Clear blueprints for large rock hunting structures, called a kite, carved into the rock. That team estimated that the carvings were 7,000 to 8,000 years old.
It appears that the remains of the submerged wall had a similar use to that of the kites – they may have been a drive lane for wild animals. These large stone structures would effectively deter game, making them easy prey for hunters. The team believes its likely use was to hunt Eurasian reindeer (rangifer fencing,
Whatever the quarry and whoever the hunter, the wall is a rare example of a well-preserved Stone Age structure in Europe. It will be difficult to determine the exact wall, but oldest known drive lane Found through luminescence to be approximately 10,000 years old, this structure is the oldest in Germany.
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