Excavations of 7,000-year-old Underwater Village Reveal Use of Advanced Nautical Technology

The Debrief ^ | March 20, 2024 | Christopher Plain

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeological excavations off the coast of Rome in the Mediterranean Sea reveal that Stone Age people living over 7,000 years ago utilized sophisticated manufacturing techniques and advanced nautical technology in the construction and operation of their seafaring vessels.

According to an analysis published in the journal PLOS ONE, the ancient seafaring vessels discovered at the site are the oldest ever found in the Mediterranean, which may offer "invaluable insights" into the technological sophistication employed by Neolithic navigators...

According to the researchers, they found five dugout canoes in the ancient lakeshore village of La Marmotta near the coast of Rome, Italy, dating from 5,700-5,100 B.C. While they already knew that ancient seafarers traded throughout the Mediterranean, the dugout canoes revealed signs of advanced nautical technology not previously found in Stone Age vessels.

For example, the boats contain what the researchers describe as "advanced construction techniques," including transverse reinforcements. The researchers behind the unique find say these advanced construction elements "would have increased the durability of the hull and protected it, as well as improving its handling."

One of the canoes also contained the remains of three t-shaped wooden objects that had a series of holes in them. In more modern vessels, such devices are used to fasten and operate sails.

[SunkenCiv]

Yes, you guessed it, they had submarines!

[SunkenCiv]

[Magnum44]

[Red Badger]

The first Neolithic boats in the Mediterranean: The settlement of La Marmotta (Anguillara Sabazia, Lazio, Italy)

[GMThrust]

I love how they assume that people who lived thousands of years ago, were cave dwelling morons. “Advanced Nautical Technology”...No, if they built it, then it was not advanced to them, it was what they knew.

[Red Badger]

[Red Badger]

[wildcard_redneck]

More proof that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Anti-Western intellectuals always try to paint ancient Europeans as less than societies in the levant because the levant is littered with stone architecture due to lack of trees while Europe's use of wood for building due to vast forests has disappeared. To put it in perspective , if civilization ended today modern American city skyscrapers like San Francisco would leave less obvious traces on the ground than a Mexican town built of cinderblock and concrete. All that would remain of the skyscrapers is their crumbled concrete foundations (due to rusting rebar) and lots of small bits of glass.

[bunkerhill7]

Noah Canoah

[moovova]

"...advanced nautical technology..."

I still enjoy their music...

[marktwain]

The more I read of the past, the more I believe our ancestors, to perhaps a hundred thousand years ago, were just as smart as us, probably moreso.

They had to be, just to survive.

[SunkenCiv]

Well put. They weren't any stronger swimmers than we are, that's for sure. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

Oddly, there's no trace of park benches in this Neolithic site...

[linMcHlp]

Looks like a deck bracket mount for shrouds (side stays) of a sailboat standing rigging. The holes are where pins pass thru for attaching chainplates, or turnbuckles, or toggles, or shackles.

[Levy78]

The only ones I’ve seen so that are negros as they have no history worth mentioning so they attempt to position ancient Europe as unremarkable. It’s like a t-ball player critiquing the MLB all-star team.

[Red Badger]

That’s exactly what they are.........................

[marktwain]

I suspect they used leeboards much like modern canoe sailing rigs. They could be easily raised and lowered when in shallow water.

[linMcHlp]

Maybe boats were the fast movers of the day. Maybe water taxis, operating between docks, the shore, various boats and ships - several of which were offshore.

[PIF]

Their is a cave painting of a wooden ship complete with bow dragon-like adornment, going back who knows how many thousands of years, using the cave wall to depict a stormy sea on which a lanteen rigged (single sail, single mast) with 2 black heads facing forward. Trailing lines are seen dangling from the mast to the ocean.

The cave is closed to the public and learned people have dubbed the image: a hut, which at a cursory glance, it resembles.

[moovova]

😁👍