Divers Intrigued by Huge Underwater Structure

The vast majority of our planet’s oceans are still completely unexplored, which means they’re full of tantalizing treasures hidden in plain sight.

In a particularly fascinating example, French marine archaeologists have discovered a massive undersea wall nearly 400 feet long. BBC Reports – The largest underwater structure ever discovered in France.

The wall was discovered off the coast of Brittany. Scientists believe the wall dates back to the Stone Age, around 5,000 BC, and may have been part of a fishing trap or dike to protect against rising sea levels – a stark parallel to the global warming threats we face today.

However, while human activities have become the largest contributor to global warming in the 21st century, rising sea levels during the early Holocene are largely attributed to the end of the last ice age, causing massive ice sheets to melt, and forcing humans to resettle farther from the coast.

The wall averages 65 feet wide and only 6.5 feet high, and is covered by 30 feet of water. Giant granite stones are scattered in the wall at regular intervals, and protrude above it along two parallel lines, according to what was stated in the book. BBC.

Scientists indicate that the standing stones may once have held a network of sticks and branches for fishing.

“It was built by a highly organized society of hunter-gatherers, the type that became sedentary when resources allowed,” said archaeologist Evan Byler, co-author of a paper on the find published in the journal International Journal of Marine Archaeology This week, he said BBC. “That or it was made by a Neolithic resident who arrived here around 5000 BC.”

The wall was first discovered in 2022 and extensively mapped later that year.

In August, the discovery of a separate Stone Age settlement off the coast of northern Denmark made headlines. Likewise, the excavated settlement was submerged by rising sea levels after the last ice age and “placed directly on the coast,” said underwater archaeologist Peter Mo Astrup. news agency at that time. “What we’re actually trying to find out here is what life was like in the coastal settlement.”

According to the archaeologist, sea levels rose about 6.5 feet per century about 8,500 years ago.

“It’s like a time capsule,” Mo Astrup said. “When sea levels rose, everything was preserved in an oxygen-free environment…time stopped.”

As we continue to explore how our ancestors lived in the wake of the last major climate event, it is an equally relevant topic today. The United Nations warns that hundreds of millions of people around the world who live along the coast are threatened by coastal erosion and flooding caused by climate change, which could one day force them to move inland – just as the first settlers once did thousands of years ago.

More about the Ice Age: Scientists have discovered that Ice Age humans were skilled at using fire