A Stone Age settlement at the bottom of the Baltic Sea?

At the bottom of the Baltic Sea, Swedish archaeologists have found artefacts dating back 11,000 years! The remains from the Stone Age (the earliest and longest of the 3 prehistoric eras) have even been hailed by the tabloid press as Sweden’s Atlantis, which only goes to show the uniqueness and importance of the find, but also the poor understanding of the subject by journalists there.

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A group of archaeologists conducted dives in the sandy Hano Bay area, where they made this unusual discovery at a depth of about 16m. There are many indications that the artefacts found are the abandoned remains of one of the nomadic tribes in the water.

“What we are dealing with here is perhaps one of the oldest and one of the first permanent habitats in the Scania area (southern Sweden) and perhaps in all of Sweden,” said project leader Prof. Bjorn Nilsson of Sodertorn University

Thanks to the specific conditions prevailing in the Baltic waters, the found objects were preserved in a very good condition. As you can see, low salinity, little oxygen and organic sediments (gytja) covering everything, have a beneficial effect not only on the preservation of wrecks, for which the Baltic is famous.

The archaeologists considered the most interesting find to be a harpoon made of animal bone. According to Prof. Nilsson, 11,000 years ago this place was a habitat located on the water, a kind of lagoon or something similar. According to him, this is evidenced by the remains of elements made of wood and bone. If the habitat had been situated only on land, everything would have been made of stone, with no use of organic elements.

Among the objects excavated, in addition to the above-mentioned pieces of worked wood and bone, tools made of flint, animal horns and the bones of an aurochs, an ancestor of domestic cattle, which became extinct around the 17th century, were found.

The archaeologists will continue their search, hoping to find more interesting finds, especially burial sites. According to the archaeologists themselves, what they have found so far is a real novelty and one of the most valuable finds of their career.

Source: TheLocal.se