Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 7,000-year-old road hidden under layers of sea mud off the southern coast of Croatia.
This exciting find was made on the sunken Neolithic site of Solin and may have once linked the ancient cultural settlement of Hvar to the now isolated island of Korcula.
The ancient city of Solin was discovered in 2021 by archaeologist Mate Barika from the University of Zadar in Croatia when he was analyzing satellite images of the water area around Korcula.
After discovering something they thought might have been man-made at the bottom of the ocean, Parika and a colleague investigated.
And at a depth of 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) in the Adriatic in the Mediterranean Sea, they discovered stone walls that may have once been part of an ancient settlement. The mainland on which it was built was separated from the main island by a narrow strip of land.
“Fortunately, this area, unlike most of the Mediterranean, is protected from big waves because many islands protect the coast. It certainly helped save the place from natural destruction,” Barika told Reuters.
And the newly opened prehistoric road has been protected from strong waves for thousands of years, thanks in part to these islands.
The road, about 4 meters (13 ft) wide, was built from carefully stacked stone slabs. Today it is covered in a thick layer of mud, as you would expect from an underwater structure.
Researchers believe that the Neolithic Hvar culture that once inhabited the eastern Adriatic Sea built the now submerged settlement of Solin and the ancient passage connecting the islands.
And thanks to the radiocarbon analysis of the preserved timber, the entire settlement was estimated at around 4900 BC.
“People walked this (road) nearly 7,000 years ago,” the University of Zadar said in a Facebook statement about its latest discovery.
This remarkable find is the result of a collaboration between experts from the Dubrovnik Museums, the Castellier City Museum, the University of Zadar and the Korcula City Museum, as well as photographers and divers.
And the same research team discovered another underwater settlement on the other side of the island, very similar to Solin, and contains several interesting Stone Age artifacts.
Igor Borzich, an archaeologist from the University of Zadar, recently noticed interesting structures under the waters of the bay. So, the explorers diving to the Solin site set off to explore the depths of the sea and, to their delight, discovered an almost identical settlement, submerged to a depth of 4 to 5 meters.
The University of Zadar adds: “Neolithic artifacts such as stone (axes) and fragments of offerings have also been found at this site.”
The new settlement, like the settlement in Solin and the road associated with it, seems to be related to the Hvar culture.
About 12,000 years ago the Neolithic period began, in some parts of the world we gradually shifted from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agriculture and domestication of animals, leading to more permanent settlement societies.
Numerous archaeological finds, skeletal remains, artefacts, computer simulations of genotypes, and many other sources such as 7,200-year-old Croatian cheese contribute to our knowledge of Neolithic humans.
But the island settlements of the Neolithic era are not so common. These are exciting discoveries for archaeologists, showing how our ancestors could adapt to different environments and build roads between them.
Source: Science Alert
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