Divers discovered an ancient dolmen and a stone workshop under water
This summer scuba divers brought sensational news to archaeologists: at the bottom of Lake Turgoyak, where the mysterious island of Vera is located, there are stone pyramids!
Scientists jumped at the idea of going underwater and scanning the coastal landscape. Moreover, there is a version: Vera Island was once an extension of the mainland. You never know what could be under water after flooding! Archaeologists ordered divers and modern equipment on the island. They went down under the water with a video camera and scanned the irregularities of the bottom.
“We saw an abnormal accumulation of stones there,” says Igor FOMIN, president of the Argonaut underwater research club. - It seemed that almost everyone was kissed by a human hand.
Then the cautious skeptics-archaeologists themselves went down to the bottom. The pyramid version was not confirmed. But at least three finds were recognized by scientists as sensational.
Firstly, from the island to the mainland, an isthmus of stones of the correct geometric shape stretches under water. Once upon a time, people clearly strengthened it. Secondly, at a depth of two meters, a dilapidated dolmen was found (something like a cave that the ancients carved into the rocky ground five thousand years ago). And, finally, traces of a stone workshop have been preserved under the water: hewn boulders and their chips. She is from 60 to 100 thousand years old.
- Once all this was on the surface. This means that the level of the lake in ancient times was at least three meters lower, - the head of the expedition, senior researcher at the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Stanislav GRIGORIEV is sure.
They also found things, for example, the remains of an ancient ship. Its wooden parts are held together without nails or staples. Perhaps the builders did not even know what metal was. A child's boat with birch-bark sails was also caught, but at most a hundred years old.
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- The devices showed that in the thickness of the silt there are objects similar in outline to boat hulls, to amphorae, - says Igor FOMIN. “I hope we will have some interesting finds next summer.
In the meantime, archaeologists promise to draw a digital three-dimensional map of the bottom with the help of divers. Then everyone can dive under the water with a virtual excursion!
However, the joy of discoveries to archaeologists was overshadowed by paperwork. What year in a row they are trying to knock out the status of a reserve for the island of Vera. Without government support and protection, this unique place, where the world's largest collection of ancient stone sculptures has already been collected, can simply be plundered. They say there are even attempts to privatize the island of world importance!
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What else have the researchers done on the island
1. Specialists of the Makeyev Rocket Center helped archaeologists find the north of the island via satellites in orbit. The compass needle "dances" on Vera. And since many stone structures are associated with the cult of the sun, scientists need their exact coordinates.
2. During the echolocation of the bottom, the divers found a spring feeding the lake. It looks like a small volcano: it is a cone with a hole at the top (about 70 - 100 cm), from which a cold stream erupts. Now scientists want to lower a flask there and take a water sample.
3. The divers saw some stone bowls at the bottom. Perhaps, they once made a fire. The weather on Turgoyak is constantly changing: fogs are frequent. And the inhabitants of these places needed "beacons".