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.
The Gulf of Thailand to the Java Sea was dry land 16000 years ago. China's coastline was 100 miles out. New Guinea was fully connected to Australia. The Persian gulf was walkable.
I was listening to Stefan Milo recently and he said something similar about how people might have lived along the coast of the Americas but because it was all mud and wood back then and is now covered in water, it'll mostly be lost at this point.
On a related note, since the Paleolithic rarely comes up on HN, something that seems to rarely come up in English language content; Menhir [1] (Long stone) or standing stones, which are spread all across Europe, some very elaborately decorated, others with sight holes cut in them, others extremely large, i.e., 30-40 feet tall before they were knocked over by the invasive meme, Christianity.
They are found from Portugal all the way to Siberia, but very little is known about them following the Christian meme eradicating the indigenous cultures through the many purges and programs from 300CE on.
There are some references that imply at least in some places they were a kind of connection to the afterlife and ancestors that would turn into birds that would perch on top of the standing stone, something that is still part of indigenous beliefs and practices in parts of Asia. It's basically the indigenous culture of the Native Europeans that middle eastern Christianity destroyed and eradicated like it destroyed and eradicated the Native Americans and so many other native people and cultures around the world.
One of the fun parts of genetic genealogy is that it's always exciting to see what old DNA turns up in archeological projects like these. It's a stretch to hope for, but wouldn't a paternal-line relative from Doggerland be cool...
> exciting to see what old DNA turns up in archeological projects like these.
While amazing advancements have taken place in ancient DNA analysis (esp. by David Reich at Harvard and his collaborators), I think all of these have been done from dry human remains on land, not submerged ones.
Does DNA in bones survive long term in seawater? Intuitively I think it would "wash away", or be hopelessly contaminated with other DNA in the water.
This is not related to the story as such, but I live in Aarhus and this is the first I hear about it. I read three national news outlets and one specific to my local region of Østjylland a couple of times a day. I wonder if I should swap some of them. I know about black trashbags being thrown out of a window in the white house and then I find an actually interesting non-tech story about something happening right outside my house here on HN...
You probably shouldnt expect the regular news media to cover ongoing archeological research unless there is some sensational find (like a viking ship in Havana).
But if you are interested in such research (and read Danish) I can recommend the magazine Skalk (skalk.dk).
The researchers and their work with underwater archeology has been covered extensively in Danish media. I'll bet you will see Danish media cover this project at the end of the year when the project is finished and results are finalized.
lol I hear you about the stories on Trump saturating all news. For 4 years it's all in going to be able to read here. It's like crack cocaine to US reporters. They won't be able to help themselves.
Will have to dig deep for interesting, non-Trump related US news.
Not far away, but partially preserved by the mudflat, lies Rungholt. A city of ~1000-1500 (some sources say 3000) inhabitants that was drowned in the Grote Mandrenke (1362 AD). That's a very big city in that time. In my childhood we were told, while wandering the tidal flat, that we should listen closely if we could hear the church bells under the mud. Only in 2023 the whereabouts of the sunken city were definitely confirmed and mapped. "Rungholt" probably means "wrong/low wood".
Every time I read an article like this I end up in a rabbit hole of reading about ice ages, sea level changes, and how the human evolved throughout it. It’s mind boggling that only 20000 years ago the sea level was 120 meters lower and much of Northern Europe was covered in ice
Do you mean just coincidental re-settlement of an old city or continuously inhabited settlements?
Former could definitely happen (and most likely did many times) but for the latter I never heard of any city from the stone age. Bronze age -- sure, but stone age? What are the examples?
> As today’s world faces rising sea levels driven by climate change, the researchers hope to shed light on how Stone Age societies adapted to shifting coastlines more than eight millennia ago.
Unfortunately I don't expect there is any particularly reusable solution to be uncovered. Ancient peoples facing rising tides almost certainly just walked a bit inland and built new huts there. They probably thought nothing of it. They were a far more physically mobile culture, without great dependence on immense, immovable infrastructure - nor on rigid land ownership rules.
Our culture's migration will be entirely different.
Land ownership was formalized about as soon as there was a reason for anyone to own land - i.e., as soon as any given people started doing pastoralism and agriculture.
I think the problem is researches feel under pressure to make research of immediate relevance to get funding etc. Its value is it tells us about people and history.
There are far more relevant examples in how more recent cultures dealt with things like land being lost to erosion or desertification or shifting rivers etc.
”Unfortunately I don't expect there is any particularly reusable solution to be uncovered.”
Scientist might write that in a PR piece or a grant proposal but I can guarantee you that no one thinks that.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 57.3 ms ] threadhttps://sea-level.vercel.app/
They are found from Portugal all the way to Siberia, but very little is known about them following the Christian meme eradicating the indigenous cultures through the many purges and programs from 300CE on.
There are some references that imply at least in some places they were a kind of connection to the afterlife and ancestors that would turn into birds that would perch on top of the standing stone, something that is still part of indigenous beliefs and practices in parts of Asia. It's basically the indigenous culture of the Native Europeans that middle eastern Christianity destroyed and eradicated like it destroyed and eradicated the Native Americans and so many other native people and cultures around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir
While amazing advancements have taken place in ancient DNA analysis (esp. by David Reich at Harvard and his collaborators), I think all of these have been done from dry human remains on land, not submerged ones.
Does DNA in bones survive long term in seawater? Intuitively I think it would "wash away", or be hopelessly contaminated with other DNA in the water.
But if you are interested in such research (and read Danish) I can recommend the magazine Skalk (skalk.dk).
You are overreacting.
Will have to dig deep for interesting, non-Trump related US news.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rungholt
https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/m0006707
Former could definitely happen (and most likely did many times) but for the latter I never heard of any city from the stone age. Bronze age -- sure, but stone age? What are the examples?
Unfortunately I don't expect there is any particularly reusable solution to be uncovered. Ancient peoples facing rising tides almost certainly just walked a bit inland and built new huts there. They probably thought nothing of it. They were a far more physically mobile culture, without great dependence on immense, immovable infrastructure - nor on rigid land ownership rules.
Our culture's migration will be entirely different.
Land ownership was formalized about as soon as there was a reason for anyone to own land - i.e., as soon as any given people started doing pastoralism and agriculture.
yeah, weve got even better technology, itll be even less of a hassle
Mad that people can write statements like this when the Netherlands exists: https://www.netherlands-tourism.com/netherlands-sea-level/
There are far more relevant examples in how more recent cultures dealt with things like land being lost to erosion or desertification or shifting rivers etc.
[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/6jlHaJMCfRmsMsrqqLBY3O?si=1...
There are seven-inch difference of sea level between Pacific and Atlantic ocean ... at the coastlines of Panama.