Lines of standing stones positioned atop
an ancient submerged wall near the Ile de Sein in Brittany, France. Credit: Hal
Open Science
Divers have discovered a long-submerged wall some
7,000 years old under the sea off western France, scientists said Thursday.
Some
120 meters long, it was found off the Ile de Sein in Brittany along with a
dozen smaller manmade structures from the same period.
"This is a very interesting
discovery that opens up new prospects for underwater archaeology, helping us
better understand how coastal societies were organized," Yvan Pailler,
professor of archaeology at the University of Western Brittany, told AFP.
He co-authored a study on the find,
published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
The structures were first spotted by
retired geologist Yves Fouquet in 2017 on charts of the ocean floor produced
with a laser system.
Divers explored the site between 2022
and 2024 and confirmed the presence of the granite structures.
"Archaeologists did not expect to
find such well-preserved structures in such a harsh setting," Fouquet
said.
Dating from between 5,800 and 5,300 BC,
they lie nine meters underwater and were built at a time when sea levels were
much lower than today.
Researchers believe they may have been fish traps built on the foreshore, or walls to protect
against rising seas.
The study says the structures reflect
"technical skills and social organization sufficient to extract, move and
erect blocks weighing several tonnes, similar in mass to many Breton
megaliths", large stone arrangements used as monuments or for ceremonial
purposes.
This technical know-how would predate the first megalithic constructions by several centuries.
edited by Andrew Zinin
Source: Ancient undersea wall dating to 5,800 BC discovered off French coast
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