ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXPLORE MYSTERIOUS UNDERWATER CAIRNS AT LAKE CONSTANCE [View all]

ALONG THE SHORES OF LAKE CONSTANCE ARE 170 UNDERWATER CAIRNS THAT STRETCH FOR 20 KM’S IN PARALLEL TO THE LAKES SHORE.


Lake Constance is a 63km-long central European lake that borders Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The lake was formed by the Rhine Glacier during the ice age and is a Zungenbecken or tongue basin lake.

No evidence of Palaeolithic finds have been found in the vicinity, but archaeologists have previously discovered stone tools (microliths) and hunting camps, suggesting that Mesolithic hunter gatherers frequented the area without settling.

Neolithic activity dates from the middle and late Neolithic, when the so-called pile dwelling and wetland settlements were established on Lake Überlingen (Lower Lake Constance), the Constance Hopper (a bay in Lake Constance) and on the Obersee (Upper Lake Constance).

In 2015, a 20 km line of 170 man-made underwater stone cairns was discovered by the Institute for Lake Research in Langenargen, when measuring the depths of the lake on the south-west shore between Bottighofen and Romanshorn.

More:
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/11/archaeologists-explore-mysterious-underwater-cairns-at-lake-constance/145275

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UPDATED 2 OCTOBER, 2019 - 01:53 ASHLEY COWIE
Swiss Archaeologists Discover 5,500 Year Old Submerged Monument

Ancient stone alignments and cairns have been discovered in Switzerland’s Lake Constance and researchers say they are 5,500 years old.

The unusual man-made pile of stones were discovered 15 feet (4.6 meters) deep on the bed of the Swiss side of Lake Constance, a 207 square mile (333 square kilometer) body of water on the border with Germany and Austria. Archaeologists claim that the range of mysterious man-shaped stones are 5,500 years old and that the stones are situated at regular intervals and align parallel to the modern lake’s shoreline.

18,000 Year Old Stones?
The scientists say much more analysis is required to understand exactly ‘how’ the rocks made it to their locations but archaeologists are using a ship equipped with a 49 foot (15 meter) long digger arm to reveal the stones for measuring and studying. In a Daily Mail article a spokesman from the Archaeology Office of the Swiss Canton of Thurgau said the findings were “sensational” after carrying out excavations using underwater georadar developed by the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.

The researchers noted a high-frequency of electromagnetic pulses in the lake which turned out to be a hidden layer in the lake bed. It was in this layer that the team of researchers found the stones and they analyzed the lake's sediment questing the origin and purpose of the formations. In the beginning it was unclear whether the stones were natural formations or glacial deposits from 18,000 years ago, but the Archaeology Office said that “it is now scientifically proven that the cairns did not originate naturally from the glacier but were piled up by human hands”.



The Archaeology Office of the Swiss Canton of Thurgau described the findings as 'sensational' after carrying out extensive excavations on the lake bed. ( Thurgau Archaeology )

Underwater Stonehenge
The cairns were first discovered in 2015 by the Institute for Lake Research in the town of Langenargen in the southwestern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and it was suspected that these stone formations were from the Bronze Age dating to around 1,000 BC. However, it is now confirmed that these mysterious piles of stones which are often, ‘predictably’, compared to an underwater Stonehenge are much older than previously thought.

More:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/submerged-mystery-0012661