Stone Age settlement found at the bottom of a lake?

According to information appearing on the net, a group of underwater archaeologists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, exploring the waters of the Iława Lake District under the direction of Andrzej Puyn, PhD, made a very interesting find. In the waters of Gil Wielki Lake they came across the remains of a Stone Age settlement. The find is exceptionally valuable as it is the only settlement from that period found in Polish waters.

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This was yet another season of Toruń archaeologists’ exploration of the mysteries of the Iława Lake District. Among the earlier successes one should certainly mention the discovery of medieval bridge crossings among others, in the waters of lakes Jeziorak i Łodygowo. The mentioned crossings date back to the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th c. Additionally, this year’s search made it possible to indicate another dozen or so places which are potential archaeological sites.

“Within one of the shallows in this body of water we found a large number of animal bones, the remains of tools made of antler, and numerous fragments of ceramic vessels used at different times by past communities. Among them, our attention was focused on fragments referring to the late Neolithic tradition, probably connected with the people of the so-called “rope pottery culture”. – said Andrzej Pydyn, PhD.

At the moment, scientists are waiting for the results of physical and chemical tests, which will allow to determine exactly what we are dealing with. According to the information on their website, archaeologists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University, there are not many similar sites left after the communities of the cord culture, but those discovered in other countries allow us to hope for a very large research potential of the site.

During their work in the Iława Lake District, scientists from Toruń have been using a range of modern technologies to obtain information in a non-invasive way. Scanning with echo sounder and side scan sonar produced barimetric maps and a list of locations classified as ‘anomalies’ for further research. The structure of the seabed was also surveyed using GPR.

This year the works were carried out on the lakes: Iławskie, Gil Wielki, Drwęckie and Grażymowskie. The research is a result of cooperation with the Warsaw branch of the Scientific Association of Polish Archaeologists. The project entitled: “Recognition of archaeological resources of the lakes and the coastal zone of the Iławskie Lake District” is a continuation of the work from 2013 and is financed by the National Heritage Institute under the programme: “Cultural Heritage” and the priority: “Protection of archaeological monuments”.

Source: umk.pl
Photo: Dominika Kofel