A submerged Stone Age hunting architecture from the Western Baltic Sea

Abstract

The Baltic Sea basins, some of which only submerged in the mid-Holocene, preserve Stone Age structures that did not survive on land. Yet, the discovery of these features is challenging and requires cross-disciplinary approaches between archeology and marine geosciences. Here we combine shipborne and AUV hydroacoustic data with up to a centimeter range resolution, sedimentological samples, and optical images to explore a Stone Age mega-structure located in 21 m water depth in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany. The structure is made of 1,673 individual stones which are usually less than 1 m in height, placed side by side over a distance of 971 m in a way that argues against a natural origin by glacial transport or ice push ridges. Running adjacent to the sunken shoreline of a paleo-lake (or bog), whose youngest phase was dated to 9143±36 ka BP, the stonewall was likely used for hunting the Eurasian reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) during the Younger Dryas or early Pre-Boreal. It was built by Hunter-gatherer groups that roamed the region after the retreat of the Weichselian Ice Sheet. Comparable Stone Age mega-structures have become known worldwide in recent times, but are almost unknown in Europe. Representing one of the oldest documented hunting structures on Earth, and potentially the largest known Stone Age structure in Europe, the site will become important for understanding subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, and inspire discussions concerning the territorial development in the Western Baltic Sea region.