In Mecklenburg Bay, researchers have discovered a stone wall almost a kilometer long at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. It was probably created more than 10,000 years ago by hunters and gatherers. He may have assisted in reindeer hunting.
At the time, the area was not yet flooded, writes a group of researchers led by Jacob Geersen of the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) and Marcel Bradtmöller of the University of Rostock. The so-called blinker wall could have helped people catch reindeer, the scientists suspect in the journal PNAS.
The Stone Age structure lies at a depth of 21 meters
The wall is located about ten kilometers northwest of the city of Rerik at a depth of about 21 meters. It consists of almost 1,700 stones, is 971 meters long, up to two meters wide and usually less than one meter high. The structure was flooded by the Baltic Sea about 8,500 years ago. There is nothing comparable in Europe, the research group writes.
The Blinkerwall was discovered by chance in September 2021 during mapping work. The 1,673 stones of the wall have a volume of almost 53 cubic meters and together weigh more than 142 tons. Most pieces of stone weigh well under 100 kilograms.
The team considers natural causes for the system – such as a tsunami, retreating glaciers or underwater currents – extremely unlikely. Other human interventions as a cause are also unlikely.
Facility used for reindeer hunting?
The team believes groups of collectors used the facility to hunt reindeer. The structure has not been directly dated, but from 9,800 years ago the region was forested and reindeer were less common – such a structure would no longer have made sense.
Source: Krone
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