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Graphical reconstruction of the stone wall as a battue structure (Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde)

Photo: Micha Grabowski / Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde / dpa

In the Bay of Mecklenburg, researchers have discovered an almost one kilometer long stone wall at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. It was probably created by hunters and gatherers more than 10,000 years ago. At that time, the area was not yet flooded, as the group led by Jacob Geersen from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) and Marcel Bradtmöller from the University of Rostock write.

The wall is located around ten kilometers northwest of the town of Rerik at a depth of around 21 meters. According to the information, it consists of almost 1,700 stones, is 971 meters long, up to two meters wide and usually less than a meter high. The structure was flooded by the Baltic Sea around 8,500 years ago, the group writes. There is nothing comparable in Europe.

The so-called blinker wall could have helped people capture reindeer, the research team suspects in the specialist magazine “PNAS”. It was discovered by chance during mapping in September 2021. According to the report, the 1,673 stones of the wall have a volume of almost 53 cubic meters and together weigh more than 142 tons. Most stones therefore weigh well under 100 kilograms.

The research team considers natural causes for the system - such as a tsunami, retreating glaciers or underwater currents - to be extremely unlikely. Other human interventions as a cause are also implausible.

»Possibly the oldest man-made megastructure in Europe«

The team suspects that groups of foragers used the facility to hunt reindeer. The structure has not been dated directly, but according to researchers, from around 9,800 years ago the region was forested and reindeer passed by less often - such a facility would no longer have made sense.

“This makes the Blinkerwall one of the oldest known examples of hunting architecture in the world and is possibly the oldest man-made megastructure in Europe,” say the researchers.

wit/dpa