Stone Age 'Atlantis' found 8,500 years after being lost at sea

Archaeologists have discovered an underwater city in Denmark's Bay of Aarhus, which is being hailed as the Stone Age Atlantis.

The team uncovered animal bones, stone tools, arrowheads, a seal tooth and a small piece of worked wood, likely a simple tool, which they believe indicates a human presence with structured activities.

The researchers have excavated an area of about 430 square feet at the small settlement. The news of the find comes as an author claimed British scientists saved America's Manhattan Project from disaster.

Lost era

The last ice age ended about 8,500 years ago, and massive ice sheets began to melt.

Sea levels rose rapidly, sometimes by several meters per century, flooding Stone Age settlements and forcing hunter-gatherer communities further inland.

Rising global sea levels dramatically reshaped coastlines, according to underwater archaeologist Peter Moe Astrup, who is leading the excavations.

Time stopped

"It is like a time capsule. When the sea level rose, everything was preserved in an oxygen-free environment ... time just stops," Astrup said.

"We actually have an old coastline. We have a settlement that was positioned directly at the coastline."

This summer, divers carefully descended about 26 feet below the waves near Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, using specialized underwater vacuums to collect delicate artifacts without damaging them.

The team combed the site foot by foot, documenting each find in detail, allowing researchers to reconstruct the layout and daily life of a settlement frozen in time.

Mesolithic settlements

The discovery is part of a $15.5million six-year international project to map parts of the seabed in the Baltic and North Seas.

Its goal is to explore sunken Northern European landscapes and uncover lost Mesolithic settlements as offshore wind farms and other sea infrastructure expand.

Most evidence of such settlements has previously been found inland from the Stone Age coast, but the recent discovery is among the first to be uncovered below the sea.

Moe Astrup said he and his team hope further excavations will find harpoons, fish hooks or traces of fishing structures.

The site offers a rare glimpse into how Mesolithic people interacted with their environment.

Living directly on the coastline, the inhabitants would have relied heavily on fishing, hunting seals and gathering plants from nearby forests.