Stone Age settlement found under the sea in Denmark
16 comments
·August 29, 2025Empact
rhplus
A recent episode of The Ancients talks about how oil and mineral exploration companies have been sharing their seismic mapping data of Doggerland with archeologists:
https://shows.acast.com/the-ancients/episodes/doggerland-the...
Partnering with industries that are mapping areas is certainly the only cost effective way for academic to work in submerged landscapes:
https://archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2022/letters-from...
tracerbulletx
This is probably especially an issue for early North American settlements if people crossing over during the ice age glacial maximum were traveling down the coasts right after coming over the Bering Land Bridge
timschmidt
Agree strongly. Especially around the Mediterranean including the north coast of Africa and the southern horn of Africa. Ancient humans are known to have inhabited the southern tip of Africa into the last interglacial period, and human migration across and settlement in the occasionally green Sahara could explain some things.
SoftTalker
It's interesting to me that items are well preserved. I thought salt water was particularly damaging and corrosive.
pfdietz
Corroding what? This is before metals were widely used.
mikert89
not corroding, but all the wood/bone/soft materials basically disappear over 10k years. very little will be left
samplatt
Not wrong, but TFA mentions "8.5k years" ago as the projected time for these findings. In cold, low-oxygen water, even wood & bone is preserved fairly well.
ccgreg
Salt water without oxygen and salt water with oxygen are different.
dang
[stub for offtopicness]
focusgroup0
>After the last ice age, huge ice sheets melted and global sea levels rose
>About 8,500 years ago, sea levels rose by about 2 meters (6.5 feet) per century
Don't tell Greta, but according to the AP, rising sea levels are not Anthropogenic
simonh
They’re not always or necessarily anthropogenic. That doesn’t mean they can’t be anthropogenic.
palmfacehn
One of the reasons why control groups are so important in science.
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SadErn
[flagged]
null
Given human propensity to settle near bodies of water (exhibited even to this day), and the change in sea levels after the last ice age, the bulk of intra-ice age settlement artifacts are probably submerged within a relatively short distance from our existing coastlines. I would be personally interested in an effort to systematically investigate these areas.