Wood beneath German lake may reveal buildings 3,000 years older than region's first farms

Underwater archaeological excavations have been ongoing in Lake Arendsee, located in Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, Germany, for numerous years. Significant discoveries, including Neolithic fish weirs, a medieval barge, and a dugout canoe, have garnered considerable interest. In the summer of 2026, researchers from the Saxony-Anhalt State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology (LDA) made a groundbreaking find, uncovering artifacts dating back approximately 10,500 years.

These items were discovered when people were not yet permanently settled in the region and were engaged in hunting, gathering, and fishing, a period known as the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age). This Mesolithic period is unique due to the exceptional preservation of potential settlement traces and the former shoreline in Lake Arendsee.

This geological peculiarity is attributable to the lake's bottom slowly sinking due to geological processes involving a salt dome beneath it. Consequently, the Mesolithic finds now lie at a depth of roughly 20 meters (66 feet) beneath a thin layer of sediment, preserving them exceptionally well. The recovered pieces of wood are particularly remarkable, as they are rare finds from this era.

State archaeologist Harald Meller explained that besides typical artifacts from this period, such as stone tools or animal bones, the recovery of wood is exceptionally significant. The recovered wood, which includes a post measuring 1.60 meters (5.2 feet) high with felling marks and split boards up to 1.30 meters (4.3 feet) long, could potentially be remnants of architectural structures.

However, whether these artifacts represent the remains of huts or other unknown wooden structures remains an area of ongoing and future research. If permanent buildings or intensively cultivated living spaces existed during this time—3,000 years before the arrival of the first farmers in Central Europe with their longhouses—this would have profound implications for our understanding of hunter-gatherers and the origins of modern cultural landscapes.

The site's discovery in spring 2026 led to further sample and individual find recovery to determine its extent and age. In a subsequent expedition, high-resolution sonar scans were conducted using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to document the contours of the former shoreline. This collaboration with the Fraunhofer IOSB-AST in Ilmenau allowed researchers to delineate potential archaeological sites and plan future underwater archaeological investigations.

Sven Thomas, the diving operations manager for LDA Saxony-Anhalt, emphasized the invaluable support provided by advanced technologies developed at the Fraunhofer Institute in Ilmenau for archaeological research. The spectacular 10,500-year-old finds in Lake Arendsee offer new insights into the era of the renowned Bad Dürrenberg shaman, who is currently the subject of a special exhibition, "The Shaman," at the State Museum of Prehistory Halle (Saale).