8,500-Year-Old Stone Age Settlement Discovered Under Denmark Coast

Archaeologists have uncovered an 8,500-year-old Stone Age settlement beneath the waters of Denmark's Bay of Aarhus, often referred to as 'Europe's Atlantis.' The site, submerged due to sea level rise following the end of the last Ice Age, was remarkably preserved in an oxygen-free underwater environment, allowing recovery of stone tools, arrowheads, animal bones, and organic materials like wood. Excavations involved specialized underwater vacuum equipment to carefully extract artifacts from about 430 square feet, providing insight into the lives and activities of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities. This discovery is part of a $15.5 million international project aimed at mapping sunken Northern European landscapes across the Baltic and North Seas to uncover other submerged Stone Age settlements. Researchers hope to find additional fishing-related tools, which would further illuminate how these communities adapted to environmental changes. Similar underwater archaeological findings in other regions, such as the ancient Egyptian city of Canopus, highlight the broader significance of submerged sites for understanding early civilizations.