Møllegabet

Facts

Underwater Stone Age settlement

By Ole Grøn, Cand.phil. i forhistorisk arkæologi 1984 Ph.d. 1993 (3 stories)

At 2 to 4.5 metres beneath sea level off the coast of Æreskøbing you can find a Palaeolithic settlement called Møllegabet. A 7,000-year-old surface of a settlement from the earliest Ertebølle culture is preserved at the deepest point. In 1990-93, Langeland Museum investigated the extremely well-preserved remains on the site of a hut where a bark-covered earth platform stood with the bottom of the wall stakes still intact. Experts also studied the remains of a young man found buried in a hollowed out tree-trunk boat a few metres from the hut. In 1976, the world's first systematic excavation of an underwater Stone Age settlement was carried out on the 6,300-year-old kitchen rubbish heap.

Public place

Selected entry

Submerged landscape reveals the answers

Story written by Ole Grøn

Time / Periode -5000 -4300

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Møllegabet's deepest area has been protected from wind and weather. A rapid rise in water level covered the site – luckily before the waves could destroy it. The rubbish in the hut is incredibly well preserved and describes the Palaeolithic inhabitants' activities in the now submerged moraine landscape of Southern Denmark. Pips from hawthorn and cornel berries, hazelnut and acorn shells, and bones from fish, birds and mammals show what they ate. The location of two fireplaces and two small concentrations of arrowheads show that two men and two women lived in the hut permanently. The remains of other stakes indicate that the site also housed other huts. Dredging activities in the 1920s revealed two 'monkey skeletons', indicating that there had been more graves.