Massive Stone Wall Built More Than 10,000 Years Ago Found Hidden Beneath the Baltic Sea

The Debrief ^ | February 13, 2024 | Christopher Plain

[SunkenCiv]

Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde report the discovery of an ancient, 10,000-year-old massive stone wall that has remained submerged beneath the Baltic Sea for millennia.

At nearly a kilometer in length, the Stone Age megastructure hidden beneath the waters of the Bay of Mecklenburg in Germany is not only one of the oldest man-made hunting structures in Europe but likely one of the oldest pieces of construction in the entire world.

"It was likely constructed by hunter–gatherer groups more than 10000 y ago and ultimately drowned during the Littorina transgression at 8500 y B.P.," the researchers explain in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Since then, it remained hidden at the seafloor, leading to a pristine preservation that will inspire research on the lifestyle and territorial development in the larger area."...

"The Baltic Sea basins, some of which only submerged in the mid-Holocene, preserve Stone Age structures that did not survive on land," they explain. "Yet, the discovery of these features is challenging and requires cross-disciplinary approaches between archeology and marine geosciences."...

As far as who actually built the massive stone wall, the team says that the location and construction methods unearthed during their aquatic studies indicate it was likely built by hunter-gatherer groups who "roamed the region" after the retreat of the Weichselian Ice Sheet over 10,000 years ago.

[libertylover]

Doesn’t look much like a wall to me.

[one guy in new jersey]

It’s the fate we all must suffer.

Or so it has been said (sung).

[one guy in new jersey]

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.

[meadsjn]

Man-made? These fantasy science writers are getting more silly by the day.

A half-mile line of huge boulders on the southern slope of a huge hole (the Baltic Sea), which was itself carved out by glacial ice, (a YUGE mile+ high mountain of slow-moving ice and boulders), looks a lot more like terminal moraine than anything constructed by people.

Oh, maybe it was built as a big fish trap???

Or maybe the fantasy writers should consult someone who teaches physical geography.

A terminal, or end, moraine consists of a ridgelike accumulation of glacial debris pushed forward by the leading glacial snout and dumped at the outermost edge of any given ice advance.

[verum ago]

Massive stone wall built by hunter gatherers? That seems odd,

Here's the actual paper at PNAS, including a section discussing why they don't think it was natural processes.

Massive in length, but not in height. Fairly common globally, actually: done to funnel herd animals into a killing zone, and to provide built-in concealment for the hunters.

They sure chose a terrible image for the article: makes it look like a heap of stones, not a nearly 1 km long, well, wall:



I highly recommend people skim the discussion section of the paper- lays out things better than the brief article (and acknowledges the possibility of natural or more recent human creation, while arguing against both).

[rottndog]

OMG!!!

THE SEAS ARE RISING!!!

RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!

[PLMerite]

“Section of a Stone Age megastructure in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany.”

Looks like it’s lacking a bit in both the mega and structure departments.

[ealgeone]

Tried to stop climate change even back then.....

[moovova]

Well, if it was a dam, it didn’t do a very good job.

[Jonty30]

The melting of the ice caps caused the sea to rise. They should have beentaxing people to prevent it.

[Jonty30]

Probably because stone age gatherers were the survivors of a formerly more advanced civilization that existed before them. Something happened that caused them to have to rebuild.

[Adder]

Its aliens...

[PeterPrinciple]

was the wall to keep someone out or in?

[Openurmind]

“more likely ballast that sank with a ship.”

Bingo. I think so too. Sinking not even needed. If you had an empty ship load ballast would be needed to off set the lack of load. So if you took on more load from another ship such as an act of pirating the ballast would have to be dumped as you add more load. And because it would be impossible to stay static in one location it would leave a line of ballast on the bottom as it was dumped.

[KingLudd]

“done to funnel herd animals into a killing zone”

There’s a similar wall below the surface of one of the Great Lakes.

[wgmalabama]

This hunter gatherer excuse ‘ refusal to look at truth is getting old.

[verum ago]

I've seen similar walls above water with my own eyes, complete with pits to hide in for the hunters, in Idaho, where I grew up.

They were beautifully sited: people love to hunt from the pits to this day. They work great. Too great- there's a taboo on rifle hunting from them. Bring your bow, boys...

[Bigg Red]

8500 y B.P

So stupid. Just so the haters don’t have to say “BC” or “AD.”

[SunkenCiv]

https://freerepublic.com/tag/maritimearchaic/index

[SunkenCiv]

They could even hold their breath longer. :^)

https://search.brave.com/search?q=Gobekli+Tepe