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Archaeologists Explore Mysterious Underwater Cairns at Lake Constance
Heritage Daily ^ | November 18, 2022 | Markus Milligan

Posted on 05/02/2023 5:12:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Lake Constance is a 63km-long central European lake... formed by the Rhine Glacier during the ice age and is a Zungenbecken or tongue basin lake.

No evidence of Palaeolithic finds have been found in the vicinity, but archaeologists have previously discovered stone tools (microliths) and hunting camps, suggesting that Mesolithic hunter gatherers frequented the area without settling.

Neolithic activity dates from the middle and late Neolithic, when the so-called pile dwelling and wetland settlements were established on Lake Überlingen (Lower Lake Constance), the Constance Hopper (a bay in Lake Constance) and on the Obersee (Upper Lake Constance).

In 2015, a 20 km line of 170 man-made underwater stone cairns was discovered by the Institute for Lake Research in Langenargen, when measuring the depths of the lake on the south-west shore between Bottighofen and Romanshorn.

Preliminary studies revealed that the cairns form a line 200 metres parallel from the lake shore, with each cairn up to thirty metres in diameter and almost two metres high. The cairns sit on a layer of lake sediment, which was deposited after the retreat of the Rhine glacier more than 10,000 years ago.

As part of a new study, archaeologists have been using an excavator to remove material around one of the cairns to see the layer structure from the bottom of the lake to the stone layer. The team has already found a piece of wood that shows primitive traces of processing by humans, which the researchers are using as one of many indicators to date the monument.

Construction of the cairn has been placed to around 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic period, as has a second cairn the team have examined, indicating that the line of 170 cairns may possibly date from the same period.

(Excerpt) Read more at heritagedaily.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: chalcolithic; godsgravesglyphs; lakeconstance; neolithic
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1 posted on 05/02/2023 5:12:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: SunkenCiv

Mysterious underwater karens?


2 posted on 05/02/2023 5:14:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
This topic continues our underwater archaeology theme.

3 posted on 05/02/2023 5:15:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: nickcarraway

Somebody probably got tired of her antics.


4 posted on 05/02/2023 5:17:10 PM PDT by Jonty30 (Black widow spiders aren't the only species that eats their mate after finishing with them. )
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To: nickcarraway

They become less mysterious if they’re found with concrete overshoes.


5 posted on 05/02/2023 5:18:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Very cool!


6 posted on 05/02/2023 5:20:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: Jonty30
I dated a girl who had a houseful of heirloom furniture.
I broke up with her when I got tired of her antiques.
Rimshot!

7 posted on 05/02/2023 5:26:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: BenLurkin

I don’t know how we all missed this one two years ago.


8 posted on 05/02/2023 5:26:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Probably marked the shoreline back then. And 5000 years is a guess, but probably a guess. It would be hard to date something like a stone cairn underwater. The closer you get to 10k years ago, the more likely the ending Ice Age was still melting away and lakes were lower.


9 posted on 05/02/2023 5:27:04 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: SunkenCiv; All
If it's the Rossen culture, the internments might look like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ssen_culture

Linear Band Culture the internments might look like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Pottery_culture

10 posted on 05/02/2023 5:29:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: SunkenCiv

You risk being sent to the corner. Again.


11 posted on 05/02/2023 5:30:32 PM PDT by ComputerGuy (Heavily-medicated for your protection)
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To: ComputerGuy

I wonder if they’ve looked for underwater constances at Lake Cairns. Seems like a good idea.


12 posted on 05/02/2023 5:33:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: BenLurkin; DesertRhino

I wonder if these are grave markers?


13 posted on 05/02/2023 5:34:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: BenLurkin

Also, thx for the link.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/European-late-neolithic-english.svg


14 posted on 05/02/2023 5:37:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/google_map_Bodensee.htm


15 posted on 05/02/2023 5:37:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: nickcarraway

I wonder if these karens had guilty constances...


16 posted on 05/02/2023 5:39:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpers are Republicans the same way Liz Cheney is a Republican.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Not a clue, but I wonder if they were some kind of boundary, or trail marker.


17 posted on 05/02/2023 5:59:58 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: SunkenCiv

Not a clue, but I wonder if they were some kind of boundary, or trail marker. And it said they were 30 meters across? Maybe some astronomical or religious sites?

Lord only knows what we have no clue of from 5k years on back. I enjoy these threads a lot.


18 posted on 05/02/2023 6:03:47 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: SunkenCiv

If the lake bed was a gouge out by an ice sheet, it would have filled up with water as the ice melted. Would it ever have been empty enough for humans to do anything in it?

Also, Cairns. I wonder if those are a hint at the prehistoric existence of Karens? Pronounced nearly the same.

I wonder if large piles of stacked rocks are called cairns because Karen’s yelled at people until the rocks got stacked?


19 posted on 05/02/2023 11:37:25 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: SunkenCiv

I wonder if they were shoreline anchors for fishing nets or something similar


20 posted on 05/03/2023 4:20:34 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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