Focus: Submerged Stone Age landscapes preserved off the island of Poel

As part of the ERC SyG project SUBNORDICA, a team of scientists around PI Dr. Svea Mahlstedt and Dr. Daniel Hepp is investigating environmental conditions, sea-level development, and preferred settlement locations during the Late Mesolithic period in the region of present-day Wismar Bay, off the island of Poel. There, several mesolithic sites had been discovered and excavated already 20 years ago during the SINCOS project.

Together with colleagues from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde and the University of Rostock as well as a dedicated joint diving team they successfully gathered extensive geophysical, sedimentological, and archaeological data in the vicinity of sites dating from the 7th to the 4th millennium BC. The team is particularly pleased to have had the opportunity to utilize a sophisticated, air-pressure-driven underwater corer for seabed sampling, a device developed through a collaborative effort between the National Museum of Denmark and the developers at Akut Denmark. This equipment enables the retrieval of samples from depths of up to two meters within the seabed. Subsequently, these samples will undergo detailed analysis in the laboratories of the NIhK, where they are expected to provide insights into the environmental conditions prevailing during the period of settlement, as well as the subsequent changes brought about by the rising sea levels.