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Science Quickly

Ancient Seawall Found Submerged

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.31.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2019

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In shallow waters off the coast of Israel, archaeologists have found entire villages—including one with a sunken seawall. Christopher Intagliata reports.  

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits to spend on Uber eats.

0:11.0

So you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's.

0:15.0

Trains, now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app.

0:20.0

This is a scientific American 60 second science. I'm Christopher in Talljata.

0:29.0

Go snorkeling in a lot of places and you'll find coral but on Israel's Mediterranean coast

0:34.8

I think it's the only place in the world that you can find whole place tall it really just

0:39.4

submerged under the The community was populated some 7,000 years ago.

0:53.0

There the archaeologists have found pottery and flint,

0:56.0

human skeletons, the remains of deer, cows, pigs and dogs,

1:00.0

and hundreds of olive pits,

1:02.0

probably the remains of olive oil production.

1:04.0

And the researchers also found a 300-foot-long stretch of huge boulders,

1:09.0

a wall.

1:10.0

After ruling out possible other uses for the wall, like defense against enemies or corralling animals,

1:15.6

the scientists determined that the formation was actually an ancient sea wall,

1:19.6

the oldest known example in the world. The results are in the journal

1:23.0

Ploss 1. The boulders that kept the waters of the Mediterranean from flooding

1:27.1

the village came from riverbeds a mile or two away and the researchers say it would

1:31.6

have taken multiple people or strong beasts of burden to move them into place,

1:36.0

suggesting that constructing the wall was a well-organized community effort.

1:41.0

But eventually, the sea beat the barrier.

1:43.2

Little by little sea level continued to rise and then it became no more effective.

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