11,000-year-old discovery at the bottom of the Baltic changes the understanding of history

Scientists have discovered an ancient stone wall at the bottom of the Baltic Sea that may be the oldest man-made structure in Europe. The discovery was made at the bottom of the Mecklenburg Bay, between Germany and Denmark. The wall is described in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As the publication specifies, archaeologists found the stone structure at a depth of 21 meters back in 2021 during a hydroacoustic survey of the seabed. It is 971 meters long. Scientists assume that the wall may weigh 142 tons. It consists of almost 1,673 stones, most of which are up to a meter high. The heaviest of the stone blocks weighs over 11 tons, but most weigh less than 100 kilograms.

Archaeologists believe that the large structure could not have appeared as a result of natural processes or in modern times. Most likely, the wall was built about 11,000 years ago by hunter-gatherers to catch reindeer during migration. The stones ended up on the seabed after the area sank under water due to the Littorina transgression about 8,000 years ago. Thanks to this, the wall has survived to this day.

The first known ancient civilization is believed to have arisen between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers about 8,000 years ago. The structure found on the bottom of the Baltic Sea is almost 3,000 years older.