Fished up from the Baltic Sea: A New Ertebølle Site near Stohl Cliff, Kiel Bay, Germany

Abstract

In the coastal waters of Kiel Bay near the village of Strande (district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein) divers unexpectedly came across trunks of fallen oak trees at 6 m depth, which led to the discovery of a new submerged late Mesolithic site. During a preliminary excavation in 2012, research divers uncovered a well-preserved coastal site, consisting of several organic sediment and silt layers with a large number of stone artefacts and organic finds. Wooden objects, plant remains, bones of several marine and freshwater fish, marine and terrestrial mammals, water birds and fragmented human bones were found. Tree ring dating, radiocarbon dates of leister prongs and human bones, and the artefact inventory pinpoint the site to the pre-pottery Ertebølle phase (5450–4750 cal BC). Sites of this time period are of particular interest as they are still rare in the south-western Baltic Sea area, where only very few sites have been examined in detail. To evaluate the extent of the organic sediment and silt layers and their potential for preserving more finds, a survey project was executed in summer 2014 over a wider area around the excavation trenches. This established a high potential for the recovery of additional finds and structures in the surrounding area, and further investigations at Strande are planned.