Archäologen fanden Hinweise auf eine 7.000 Jahre alte versunkene Stadt. Die Funde könnten darauf hindeuten, dass es in der Region weitere versunkene Ruinen geben könnte, die die Geschichte einer Zeit erzählen könnten, als mesolithische Jäger- und Sammlergesellschaften in neolithische Siedlungen übergingen.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crk7lg1j146o
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French marine archaeologists have discovered a massive undersea wall off the coast of Brittany, dating from around 5,000 BC.
They think it could be from a stone age society whose disappearance under rising seas was the origin of a local sunken city myth.
The 120-metre (394ft) wall – the biggest underwater construction ever found in France – was either a fish-trap or a dyke for protection against rising sea-levels, the archaeologists believe.
When it was built on the Ile de Sein at Brittany’s western tip, the wall would have been on the shore-line – between the high and low tide marks. Today it is under nine metres of water as the island has shrunk to a fraction of its former size.
The wall is on average 20 metres wide and two metres high. At regular intervals divers found large granite standing stones – or monoliths – protruding above the wall in two parallel lines.
It is believed these were originally placed on the bedrock and then the wall built around them out of slabs and smaller stones. If the fish-trap hypothesis is the right one, then the lines of protruding monoliths would have also supported a „net“ made of sticks and branches to catch fish as the tide retreated.
With an overall mass of 3,300 tonnes, the wall must have been the work of a substantial settled community. And to have lasted 7,000 years, it was clearly an extremely solid structure.
„It was built by a very structured society of hunter-gatherers, of a kind that became sedentary when resources permitted. That or it was made by one of the Neolithic populations that arrived here around 5,000 BC,“ said archaeologist Yvan Pailler.
https://hal.science/hal-05406477v1/document
A hyped up title for what the article actually says. Looks like this was a coastal settlement when built, and the article even states that it was likely a dyke or fish trap.
Struggling to find the original article cited in the BBC link, which seems much more subdued than the title of this post suggests.
If this was a costal city that sank because of rising sea level ~7k years ago, I’m thinking:
1. Most cities would be costal cities because of fish, water, and trade
2. Those other costal cities would also be sunk by the same rising sea levels
How many sunken costal cities are yet to be discovered? We only discovered this one in OP because of gigantic stone walls and monoliths.
Weird article. They cite „The Journal of Nautical Archaeology,“ which doesn’t seem to exist. The „International Journal of Nautical Archaeology“ does, but their Taylor and Francis online version doesn’t have a link to any article like this.
There *is* an article in „[Archaeology News](https://archaeologymag.com/2025/12/ancient-undersea-wall-off-the-french-coast/),“ which links back to an article IJNA and an article here: https://hal.science/hal-05406477
Abstract of the original:
> Morpho-tectonic analysis of LIDAR data off Sein Island (France) revealed 11 submerged structures at significant depths. Dives conducted between 2022 and 2024 confirmed these are human-built granite structures, with the largest wall measuring 120 m long. Some structures appear to be fish weirs, others possibly protective. Based on relative sea level data, the dating of these structures was estimated to range from 5800 to 5300 BCE. These remains, unique at such depth, show Mesolithic human presence and advanced building skills, predating Neolithic megalithism in Brittany by 500 years. They offer valuable insight into maritime hunter-gatherer societies during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition.