Kivivalli on the German coast has more than 1,500 stones side by side. The structure is almost a kilometer long.
Baltic Sea one of Europe's largest ancient stone structures has been found at the bottom of Mecklenburg Bay. It dates back to the Stone Age, perhaps more than 10,000 years ago.
The sea has long ago swallowed the entire stone pipe. The stone wall is now still quite intact, but at a depth of about 21 meters near the German coast.
Archaeologists and researchers are pretty sure that the stone wall was used by the hunter-gatherers of the time to trap deer, elk and others – and for food.
The researchers' 3-d modeling of the rubble from the time when it was still on the ground and close to water.
Stone rampart was located at the edge of the then lake or swamp area. It followed the coastline the whole way.
The hunters were thus able to drive herds of ungulates that wandered in the region into a tight space. The animals were perhaps eventually driven into the water where they were killed, says the website Science Alert.
The game probably consisted of deer and European bison.
Although the hunter-gatherers of the area lived in small groups, large groups could gather at the lake when, for example, deer arrived in the area.
At that time, perhaps around 5,000 people lived in the area of Northern Europe.
A stone wall are among the oldest man-made structures found related to hunting. At the same time, it belongs to the largest stone age structures in Europe, the researchers write in their article.
There are a dozen large stones in the wall that weigh tons. Kiel's Christian Albrechts University is placed between them bulletin including more than 1,500 smaller stones. There are more stones.
The stones are mostly less than one meter high and less than two meters wide. According to the researchers, the stone wall was built by connecting large stones with chains of smaller stones. People have been able to move small stones.
Kivivalli finally sank into the nascent Baltic Sea about 8,500 years ago. Since then, it has remained untouched beneath the waves. The wall was reported by the American Academy of Sciences publication Pnas.
Discovery increases archaeologists' understanding of the development of the ancient western Baltic Sea region, says a geophysicist from the University of Kiel Jacob Geersen. He led a team o
f researchers.
Geersen specified the size and shapes of the stone wall using accurate hydroacoustic imaging. It makes use of echoes from the water, and can thus form an accurate picture of the bottom.
Robots were also brought to the bottom. Divers also estimate the extent of the rampart. Finally it was 3d modeled, says the university's announcement.
Discovery was done by chance. In 2021, a group of students practiced using the new equipment with Geerseen. The students came from the Baltic Sea Research Institute in Warnemünde, Germany.
They mapped the seabed with a versatile sonar. The place was about ten kilometers from the small town of Rerik, which is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea.
Geersen returned to the scene a year later and then also put the camera down. On inspection, a long row of large stones was revealed at the bottom, which had been arranged quite carefully.
He and other researchers concluded that the rocks were not just a natural formation.
“It wasn't until we contacted the archaeologists that we realized there could be something significant in the place,” says Geersen.
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