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A megastructure found in the Baltic Sea may represent one of the oldest known hunting structures used in the Stone Age, changing what is known about how hunter-gatherers lived about 11,000 years ago.
Researchers and students from the University of Kiel in Germany first encountered the surprising array of stones, located about 69 feet (21 meters) underwater, during a marine geophysics survey along the seafloor of Mecklenburg Bay, about 6 miles offshore. Rerik, Germany.
The discovery, made in the fall of 2021 while aboard the research vessel RV Alkor, revealed a wall of 1,670 stones stretching more than half a mile (1 kilometer). The stones connecting several large boulders were almost perfectly aligned, eliminating the possibility that nature had shaped the structure.
After researchers alerted the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Office for the Protection of Culture and Monuments to their findings, an investigation began to determine what the structure might have been and how it ended up at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Diving teams and an autonomous underwater vehicle were used to examine the area.
The team determined that the wall was likely built by Stone Age communities to hunt reindeer more than 10,000 years ago.
A study describing the structure was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Our research shows that the natural origin of the underwater stone wall, as well as construction in modern times, for example in connection with submarine cable laying or stone collection, is unlikely. The methodical arrangement of many small stones connecting large, immobile rocks argues against this,” Germany said Lead study author Dr. D., senior scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Jacob Geersen said in a statement.
turn back time
According to the research, the wall was likely built along the shoreline of a lake or swamp more than 10,000 years ago. Rocks were abundant in the area at the time, left behind by glaciers moving across the landscape.
But examining and dating underwater structures is incredibly difficult, so the research team needed to analyze how the area developed to determine the approximate age of the wall. They collected sediment samples, created a 3D model of the wall, and virtually reconstructed the landscape in which the wall was originally built.
According to the study’s authors, sea levels rose significantly after the end of the last ice age about 8,500 years ago; This would result in the walls and much of the land being flooded.
But around 11,000 years ago, things were different.
“The total population in Northern Europe at this time was probably under 5,000 people. “One of their main food sources was seasonally migrating reindeer herds across sparsely vegetated post-glacial terrain,” said study co-author Dr. Marcel Bradtmöller said in a statement. “The wall was probably used to direct reindeer into the bottleneck between the lakeshore and the wall, or even into the lake, where Stone Age hunters could kill them more easily with their weapons.”
Hunter-gatherers used spears, bows and arrows to capture their prey, Bradtmöller said.
Geersen said a secondary structure may have been used to create the bottleneck, but the research team has yet to find any evidence of that. However, he said it was likely that hunters had directed the reindeer into the lake because the animals were slow swimmers.
The hunter-gatherer community appeared to be aware that deer would follow the path created by the wall, the researchers said.
“Animals appear to be attracted to such linear structures and prefer to follow the structure rather than try to cross it, even if it is only 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) high,” Geersen said.
Bradtmöller said the discovery changed the way researchers think about highly mobile groups such as hunter-gatherers. Building a massive, permanent structure like the wall implies that these regional groups may be more location-oriented and territorial than previously believed, he said.
Hunting grounds around the world
The discovery marks the first Stone Age hunting structure in the Baltic Sea region. But similar prehistoric hunting structures have also been found elsewhere in the world, including the United States and Greenland, as well as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where researchers discovered traps known as “desert kites.”
Stone walls and hunting blinds built to hunt caribou have previously been found at the bottom of Michigan’s Lake Huron, discovered at a depth of 98 feet (30 meters). The construction and location of the Lake Huron wall, which has lakeshore on one side, is most similar to the Baltic Sea wall, the study authors said.
Meanwhile, scientists continue their research in the Baltic using sonar and sounding devices and are planning future dives to search for archaeological finds. Geersen said such discoveries would only be possible by combining expertise in fields such as marine geology, geophysics and archaeology.
He said it was important to understand the location of lost structures and artifacts on the seabed as demand for offshore areas increased due to tourism, fishing and the construction of pipelines and wind farms. Other undiscovered treasures at the bottom of the Baltic Sea may shed more light on ancient hunter-gatherer societies.
“We have evidence of similar stone walls elsewhere in (Mecklenburg Bay). Co-author of the study, Dr. D., a researcher in the Marine Geophysics and Hydroacoustics group at Kiel University. Jens Schneider von Deimling said in a statement.
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