Stone Age road is uncovered underwater off Croatian island after 7,000 years

The remains of a Stone Age road built 7,000 years ago have been discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Archaeologists made the surprising find after analyzing satellite images of the water around the now submerged Neolithic site of Soline, which was discovered in 2021 off the coast of the Croatian island of Korčula.

They believe that the prehistoric road once connected Korčula and Soline when the latter was an artificial landmass home to the ancient Hvar culture.

It now lies 13-16ft (4-5m) below the Adriatic Sea.

Korčula, part of the Adriatic archipelago, was originally connected to the mainland, but when sea levels started to rise at the end of the last ice age in 12,000 BC, flooding more or less led to the current layout from about 8,000 years ago .

Soline was first identified when satellite images suggested something man-made was lurking on the ocean floor around Korčula.

It was spotted by archaeologist Mate Parica, from the University of Zadar, who dived to the area with colleagues to take a closer look.

While exploring, the experts came across the walls of an ancient settlement that appeared to be connected to the main island by a narrow strip of land.

“Fortunately, unlike most parts of the Mediterranean, this area is safe from big waves because many islands protect the coast,” Parica said when he made his original discovery.

“That certainly helped to protect the site from natural destruction.”

Now it appears that this newly identified Stone Age passageway has also been protected from powerful waves by these islands for millennia.

Experts believe the road was built by the Hvar-Lisičići culture – a Neolithic culture on the eastern Adriatic coast, named after the Adriatic island of Hvar – as a way to get from Soline to Korčula.

Radiocarbon analysis of preserved wood has shown that the Soline settlement dates from about 4,900 BC.

“People walked on this [road] almost 7,000 years ago,” the University of Zadar said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Though now hidden under layers of sea mud, archaeologists say the passage was carefully built with stone slabs and is about 4 meters wide.

Archaeologists made the surprising find after analyzing satellite images of the water around the now submerged Neolithic site of Soline (pictured), which was discovered in 2021 off the coast of the Croatian island of Korčula.

Theory: Experts believe that the prehistoric road once connected Korčula and Soline when the latter was an artificial land mass home to the ancient Hvar culture

Strange: Soline was first identified when satellite images suggested something man-made was lurking on the ocean floor around Korčula

Research: It was noticed by archaeologist Mate Parica, from the University of Zadar, who went diving to the area with colleagues to take a closer look

The same research team also discovered another underwater settlement on the other side of Korčula.

Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Soline, it has also been submerged at depths of 13-16 ft (4-5 m) and has led to the discovery of some interesting Stone Age tools.

“Neolithic artifacts like cream knives, stone [axes] and fragments of offerings were found at the site,” Zadar University added.

Archaeologists believe that the new settlement was also inhabited by the Hvar culture, who were the first to call the island of Hvar home.

Hvar’s location at the center of Adriatic shipping lanes has long made the island an important base for trade across the Mediterranean.

Historians and archaeologists believe that the Stone Age Hvar culture likely established trade links between the island and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in what is now western Asia.

More history: the same research team also discovered another underwater settlement on the other side of Korčula (pictured)

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT STONE AGE HISTORY?

The Stone Age is a period of human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers more than 95 percent of human technological prehistory.

It begins with the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins, ancient ancestors of humans, during the Old Stone Age – beginning about 3.3 million years ago.

Between about 400,000 and 200,000 years ago, the pace of innovation in stone technology began to accelerate very slightly, a period known as the Middle Stone Age.

At the beginning of this era, hand axes were made with exquisite craftsmanship. This eventually gave way to smaller, more diverse toolkits, with an emphasis on flake tools rather than larger core tools.

The Stone Age is a period of human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers more than 95 percent of human technological prehistory. This image shows Neolithic jadeite axes from the Museum of Toulouse

These tool kits are at least 285,000 years old in some parts of Africa and after 250,000 to 200,000 years old in Europe and parts of western Asia. These tool kits go back at least 50,000 to 28,000 years ago.

During the later Stone Age, the pace of innovation increased and the level of craftsmanship increased.

Groups of Homo sapiens experimented with various raw materials, including bone, ivory, antler and stone.

The period, between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago, is also associated with the emergence of modern human behavior in Africa.

Different groups sought their own specific cultural identity and adopted their own ways of making things.

Subsequent Stone Age peoples and their technologies spread from Africa over the next several thousand years.