Startling evidence of a Stone Age structure in the Solent

This is Hampshire ^ | Sunday September 27th 2009 | Peter Law

[SunkenCiv]

While it might have been dismissed as underwater junk by the untrained eye, the archaeologists soon realised they had discovered a vital clue to a lost civilisation. The timber was not isolated. In fact they found another 23 pieces of all shapes and sizes intersecting throughout the underwater cliff off Bouldnor, on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. They are now convinced the timber is evidence of a huge wooden structure built about 8,000 years ago by our Mesolithic ancestors. Garry Momber has been excavating the 1km-long site for more than a decade and believes it is the most significant find to date... This summer's three-day dive cost £3,600, a sum covered by donations and support from the National Oceanography Centre.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

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[pillut48]

“Raiders of the Lost Ark (of Noah?)” ping!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now we are diving for a dig....where do they put the dirt?

LOL!

[GeronL]

Always cool

[Blue State Insurgent]

Woodhenge.

[JoeProBono]

Some assembly required: The flatpack Helsinki, which has five rooms and a loft space for store, can be knocked together in a few days

[Mr. Dough]

Yet another great reason to visit Hampshire. But sadly the lottery keeps getting the numbers wrong...

[BIGLOOK]

Submerged wooden structure built by Mesolithic carpenters 8000 yrs ago.....?

It's evidence of the sea levels rising or that wood doesn't always float.

All seriousness aside, civilizations come and go, some endure briefly only to sink and rot from unexpected fortune of changing tides.

[Fred Nerks]

Garry Momber, Director of HWTMA said: ‘This is a site of international importance as it reveals a time before the English Channel existed when Europe and Britain were linked. Earlier excavations have produced flint tools, pristine 8,000-year-old organic material such as acorns, charcoal and worked pieces of wood showing evidence of extensive human activity. This is the only site of its kind in Britain and is extremely important to our understanding of our Stone Age ancestors from the lesser-known Mesolithic period.

‘At first we had no idea of the size of this site, but now we are finding evidence of hearths and ovens so it appears to be an extensive settlement. We are hoping that this excavation will reveal more artefacts and clues to life in the Stone Age.’

SCIENCE DAILY 2007

[Fred Nerks]

EARTH IN UPHEAVAL PAGE 167

In post-glacial times, so it is assumed, in the Subboreal
period, which began about 2000 years before the present
era and endured to about 800, large parts of the area
were added to the sea. The Atlantic Ocean sent its waters
along the Scottish and Norwegian shores, and also through
the Channel that had been formed only a short while
before.

Human artifacts and bones of land animals were
dredged from the bottom of the North Sea; and along
the shores of Scotland and England, as well as on the
Dogger Bank in the middle of the sea, stumps of trees with
their roots still in the ground were found. Forty-five miles from the coast, from a depth of thirty-six meters, Norfolk fishermen drew up a spearhead carved from the antler of a deer, embedded in a block of peat. 1 This artifact dates from the Mesolithic or early Neolithic Age and serves as one of many proofs that the area covered by the North Sea was a place of human habitation not many thousands of years ago.

From the analysis of the pollens found in the peat taken from the bottom of the sea, the conclusion was reached that these forests existed in not too remote times. It has also been assumed that the building of large areas of the North Sea in the Subboreal period resulted from a rather sudden sinking of the land, which some authorities date at about 1500, or a little earlier, at the same time that floods destroyed the lake dwellings of central Europe.

http://www.archive.org/stream/earthupheaval010880mbp/earthupheaval010880mbp_djvu.txt

[blam]

Stone Age Sites Found Under North Sea (8,000BC)

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the post. There must be many, many similar undiscovered sites under the North Sea and English Channel. Lots of work for future archaeologists and lots of interesting discoveries ahead.

[SunkenCiv]

I hope this particular offshore dig produces something a little more exciting, but then, did you see how low the budget was?!? Astounding.

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, he’s givin’ us the finger!

[SunkenCiv]

Ironically, these chunks of wood are remnants of a treehouse.

[SunkenCiv]

I grok that.

[BIGLOOK]

I read the novel Atlantis a few weeks back....about the discovery of Atlantis which disappeared during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, c. 6000 BC. It was ....novel and on a scale of 1 to 10, it rates a -6000 .

But it did have interesting points theorizing the spread of the technological and civilizing aspects of late neolthic societies through Europe, the Mid East and North Africa.

Leaves little room for intellectual spontaneity in wide spread groups of Homo Sapiens to arrive at successful methods to establish a culture.

[colorado tanker]

I did notice the budget. I wish there would be more $$ for underwater archeology, although they produce interesting results often on a shoestring.

[SunkenCiv]

And the only future for breakthrough archaeology in the US (because of NAGPRA) will be offshore. In this hemisphere, the most interesting stuff seems to be taking place in Brazil.