5,000-year-old chain of cairns found at the bottom of a lake in Europe

Archaeologists at the Lake Research Institute in Langenargen reported about the study cairns at the bottom of Lake Constance, which is located on the border of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The first results confirmed that these stones are about 5,000 years old.

An underwater line of 170 cairns in the lake was discovered back in 2015. They form a 20-kilometer strip running parallel to the shore of the lake, 200 meters from it. Each pyramid reaches thirty meters in diameter and almost two meters in height.

All cairns are located on a layer of lacustrine deposits that formed after the retreat of the Rhine Glacier over 10,000 years ago. As part of a new study, archaeologists used special equipment to remove material around one of the pyramids to see the structure of the layers from the bottom of the lake to the stones.

The researchers have already found a piece of wood with traces of primitive human processing - this is one of the many indicators that helped determine the time of the construction of the pyramids. All structures were attributed to the Neolithic period.

Urs Leitzinger from the Museum of Archeology of the Canton of Thurgau believes that several villages on the lakeshore participated in the construction of such a monumental structure. The purpose of the cairns has yet to be determined, but the scientist suggested that the cairns could have some kind of significance for cultists and the burial process, served as a gathering place for people or were used to help in fishing fishing.

The team of archaeologists plans to continue excavations to get answers to their questions and uncover the secrets of such an unusual underwater find.