Referred to by archaeologists as an underwater “Stonehenge”, it extends for kilometers under a European lake
Lake Constance: this is where archaeologists and scientists are studying a deposit consisting of a sort of underwater path of ancient piles of rocks, or cairns , which extends for kilometers under the waters of the lake which is located between Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The path appears to have been made by humans who lived about 5,500 years ago , according to a 2021 study.
A team led by Urs Leuzinger, an archaeologist at the Thurgau Canton Museum of Archaeology, has gathered convincing evidence as to where these rock formations came from: they were made by individuals who inhabited the area during the Neolithic period .
Archaeologists have already unearthed the remains of pile-dwelling villages built thousands of years ago by the Neolithic in the marshes around this lake. Leuzinger believes that many of these villages are involved in building the cairns, because the formation is too large to be the work of a single settlement.
Considering the effort put into the creation of the stilt houses, it is interesting to ask what the paths of stone mounds could have meant for these prehistoric populations. Leuzinger and his colleagues consider several possible functions, including that of crannogs , artificial islands built into lakes. The team also speculated that the stilt houses could be fishing platforms , burial sites , border fortifications, a sort of solstice-based calendar, or even a place for astronomical observation.
To try to go even deeper and resolve these doubts, the research group is preparing for other dives in order to analyze other finds that will emerge from this submerged structure.
