Can you imagine a piece of land the size of a small country slowly sinking under water, taking hills, forests and fields with it? An important detail - this land, resting on the bottom, has been inhabited by people for thousands of years. Sounds like the starting point of a good science fiction novel, doesn't it?
But, perhaps, in the history of our planet, such things have happened more than once. About twenty thousand years ago, the Earth was in the midst of the last ice age, and the sea level on the entire planet was much lower than today. However, coastal areas have always been attractive to people. First of all, because here you can easily get your own food - you just need to throw a fishing rod or a net. Therefore, many of the areas where people lived then ended up under water, at the bottom of the ocean, and for the same reason it is so difficult for scientists to find them.
Black Sea
The Black Sea region is a real Klondike for archaeologists studying early civilizations. However, specialists of this profile notice certain "time lapses" here. They date back approximately to the era when people, in connection with the development of agriculture, began to move to a sedentary lifestyle. This is the Neolithic (New Stone Age) - a turning point in the history of human civilization. Archaeologists are traditionally interested in artifacts of such transition periods - in this case, from hunting and gathering to agriculture. But in this particular region it is extremely difficult to find them. Because they can all be at the bottom of the Black Sea. At the end of the last ice age, there was a huge freshwater lake in its place, but its shores were located much lower. On the site of the present Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, a narrow isthmus passed,that held back the salty water of the Mediterranean. There is a hypothesis that the level of a neighboring reservoir began to rise, the water pushed through this thin natural dam, as a result of which a waterfall 200 times more powerful than Niagara was formed. Some researchers speculate that this cataclysm ultimately gave rise to the ancient legends of the Flood, Noah and Gilgamesh.
But, most likely, the filling of the Black Sea was not sudden and catastrophic. Water in general could come from the Caspian Sea, from a completely different direction. In any case, this flooding was very unpleasant for our ancestors from the Stone Age. However, this hypothetical scenario may turn out to be extremely favorable for archaeologists. There is very little oxygen at the bottom of the Black Sea, and therefore the organic matter of interest to scientists from the Neolithic settlements (wood, fibers, animal skins) could be well preserved. The problem is figuring out where to dive. Here archaeologists can be helped by both modern technology and some random help, as happened, for example, in Great Britain.
Foggy Albion
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Here, in 1999, a group of scientists conducting research near the Isle of Wight came across a section of the bottom, “plowed” by local crustaceans. Burrowing, as is their custom, into the seabed, the arthropods exposed several Stone Age flint tools. Subsequent expeditions found several more noteworthy areas of the bottom - in particular, near the underwater formation known as Boldnor Cliff. More than 8,000 years ago, there was a dry land inhabited by humans in these places, and researchers have found evidence of this fact - including primitive shipyards. This part of the planet during the ice ages of the late Pleistocene did not look at all the same as it does now. Great Britain was more of a peninsula than an island. Moreover, next to its modern territory in the middle of the present North Sea was a piece of land the size of a small European country.
Map of a hypothetical Doggerland circa 8000 BC BC, the southern tip of which at that time was supposed to connect Britain with the continent.
It is conventionally called "Doggerland" and at one time connected Foggy Albion with those shores where the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are today. When the Pleistocene gave way to a warmer Holocene, this land disappeared under water. Exploring the bottom of the North Sea revealed river valleys and hills there. It was a fertile region, and its study can probably tell a lot about the way of life of the first farmers in Northern Europe. Sometimes artifacts are found on the local coasts that hint that Doggerland was indeed inhabited. Its flooding, most likely, occurred slowly, over the course of many generations, but spectacular cataclysms could also be observed here. Researchers have found that three large landslides occurred off the coast of Norway about 8 thousand years ago. They caused powerful tsunamiswhich rolled across the already half-submerged Doggerland. However, the fate of this land area was already a foregone conclusion.
Pacific, Indian Ocean, Middle East
Many other "Atlantis" lie on shallow continental shelves in other parts of the planet. For example, Beringia, which once connected Alaska and Siberia. It is possible that this land has been inhabited by human populations for millennia. According to one of the available hypotheses, when the sea level began to rise as a result of the melting of glaciers, the ancestors of the American Indians left there to the south along the Pacific coast of North America.
In the opposite part of the Earth was the so-called Sundaland, which covered Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. To the east was the ancient continent of Sahul, which included Australia and New Guinea. Some researchers believe that these two land areas have been inhabited by representatives of our species of living creatures for 50,000 years, and traces of their life activity, if desired, can be found on the ocean floor of the corresponding modern regions.
Sahul and Sundaland during the last glacial maximum, when sea levels were 150 m below current. The area between the Asian and Australian shelves is called Wallaceia.
The “oasis of the bay” is as attractive to archaeologists as the already mentioned Black Sea. In the Pleistocene, there were many rivers and a huge freshwater lake, but then everything was covered by the current Persian Gulf. A significant number of settlements appeared in this region about 9000 years ago and it is assumed that these were settlers driven by the advancing sea from their former habitats. That is, the study of the bottom of the gulf holds great prospects for studying the history of local civilizations.
The most ancient cities on our planet are believed to have been built by the Sumerians. They are located in the delta where the Tigris and Euphrates empty into the Persian Gulf. To the southeast of this place is the Bahrain archipelago, where excavations have revealed traces of an ancient civilization. It was conventionally named Dilmun - in honor of the legendary island paradise of the Sumerians. In the myths of this people about the creation of the world, it appears as a land blessed with fresh water. There is a theory that both the Sumerians and the people whose traces were found in Bahrain were settlers from lands flooded by sea waters. Considering how many of the most important discoveries and technological breakthroughs were absolutely in this region of the planet (writing, wheel, domestication of wheat, brewing, etc.),at the bottom of the bay, archaeologists can expect the most incredible surprises. Perhaps this now flooded land was one of the first places where the ancestors of modern man who came out of Africa in their time moved. Until now, there have been practically no studies in this area of the seabed, and it remains only to wait for the moment when archaeologists get their hands on it.
Available successes
Despite the hypothetical nature of all of the above, underwater archeology has several notable achievements. Particularly in the Mediterranean region. For example, the researchers managed to draw up a map of the shallow waters off the southern coast of Greece, as a result of which an ancient settlement that existed long before Homer was discovered at the bottom. Scientists call it Pavlopetri, although the ancient name, as is clear, remains a mystery. Similar work is underway off the coast of Israel - here archaeologists are studying the "village" of Atlit-Yam, which seems to have survived in the same form in which it was 9000 years ago when the inhabitants left it. The local population, apparently, did not feel the need for anything - they raised livestock and various agricultural crops, and also engaged in fishing. People lived here for a long time by the standards of that time and buried the dead with honors and offerings. They even built a megalithic structure reminiscent of Stonehenge. Its function is not fully understood, but it is possible that there was a source of fresh water here.
Cromlech in North Wales.
The reasons for the decline of Atlit-Yam are most likely indicated by stone wells found on its territory. Each of them in turn was clogged with debris, apparently because there was running out of water. Well, and, of course, the rise in sea level affected - it eventually flooded the village and stopped 400 meters from it further in the direction of land. Today, Atlit Yam is the best-preserved settlement of its era in the Mediterranean basin, and archaeologists are researching buildings and artifacts that have been reliably protected by sands for thousands of years.