this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
1 points (100.0% liked)

Archaeology

2268 readers
15 users here now

Welcome to c/Archaeology @ Mander.xyz!

Shovelbums welcome. 🗿


Notice Board

This is a work in progress, please don't mind the mess.


About

Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Be kind and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. No pseudoscience/pseudoarchaeology.



Links

Archaeology 101:

Get Involved:

University and Field Work:

Jobs and Career:

Professional Organisations:

FOSS Tools:

Datasets:

Fun:

Other Resources:



Similar Communities


Sister Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Plants & Gardening

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Memes


Find us on Reddit

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Scientists have found a giant wall underneath the Baltic Sea — and they're pretty sure humans made it.

In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the German research team who discovered the megastructure, which they've called the Blinkerwall, say they believe it was constructed for hunting on land.

As the paper penned by geoscience researchers led by Kiel University notes, some parts of the Baltic Sea basin only submerged in the mid-Holocene era, dating back between 5,000 and 7,000 years.

With sediment dating estimates putting the Blinkerwall's age at between 10,000 and 11,000 years ago during the Stone Age, scientists say the uniformity of this lengthy structure — which runs for 971 meters, or roughly 60 percent of a mile — makes it seem more likely to have been made by humans than by the movements of glaciers or tsunamis. If they're right, it could be the "oldest man-made megastructure in Europe," the paper declares.

top 2 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

Since the auto-tldr doesn't mention it, in this case "megastructure" is a wall. Likely built on land, then submerged with time.

By the way, there's evidence of similar kinds of walls used for hunting by North American natives.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the German research team who discovered the megastructure, which they've called the Blinkerwall, say they believe it was constructed for hunting on land.

As the paper penned by geoscience researchers led by Kiel University notes, some parts of the Baltic Sea basin only submerged in the mid-Holocene era, dating back between 5,000 and 7,000 years.

"When you chase the animals, they follow these structures, they don’t attempt to jump over them," first paper author Jacob Geersen explained in an interview with The Guardian.

Although other large structures had been discovered in the Bay of Mecklenburg, it wasn't until 2021 that the Kiel team detected what they now call the Blinkerwall when out on a research expedition.

Using "multibeam echosound data," they determined that it is roughly a meter high at its tallest point, which also seems to lend credence to the driving wall theory.

In a statement to CNN, paper co-author Marcel Bradtmöller of the University of Rostock emphasized just how different Northern Europe was during the era the Blinkerwall was likely built.


The original article contains 465 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 60%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!