Atlit-Yam: A submerged Neolithic settlement

Off the coast of the village of Atlit lies Atlit Yam, a submerged Neolithic settlement located off the Atlit coast in present-day Israel.

Atlit-Yam: A submerged Neolithic settlement 1
Atlit-Yam, underwater ritual structure made of stones. © Image Credit : Hanay – CC BY-SA 3.0

The site, which dates between 6900 and 6300 BC, is approximately 10 meters below current sea level and covers an area of 40,000 square meters.

Tectonic tilting and climatic changes caused swamps along the Israeli coastal plain to dry up at the start of the Holocene. The reclaimed land along the retreating shoreline was settled by Neolithic peoples during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNB) and later Pottery Neolithic Periods, until a eustatic rise in ocean sea levels submerged the ancient settlements to a depth of 8-12 meters beneath the surface.

Atlit-Yam: A submerged Neolithic settlement 2
For centuries, the site remained hidden 10 meters below the waves and was discovered after a severe storm in 1984. Scientists found special stones that were used for religious ceremonies. © Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Atlit Yam was settled around 6900 BC, with the inhabitants surviving on agro-pastoral-marine subsistence.

Atlit-Yam: A submerged Neolithic settlement 3
In one ᴀssemblage alone, over 8755 flint artefacts have been recovered, whilst across the site numerous arrowheads, sickle blades, bifaces, spearheads, and bifacially flaked knives has been excavated. © Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Atlit-Yam: A submerged Neolithic settlement 4
The villagers dug a deep well to depths of 10.5 meters through layers of clay and soft sandstone, that was lined with stone courses and capped with a tumulus-like circular construction. Within the build-up of marine sediment inside the well, underwater archaeologists found hundreds of thermally fractured limestone pebbles, animal bones, stone tools, waterlogged and carbonised plant remains, and several fragments of human bone. © Image Credit: Public Domain

Scientists believe that Atlit-Yam was abandoned abruptly as a result of a tsunami that hit the region, most likely caused by a volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean area.

Atlit-Yam: A submerged Neolithic settlement 5
Human skeleton in flexed position, discovered at Atlit-Yam. Close to or within the ritual structures, 15 human skeletons have been discovered, mostly in single graves either relatively intact, or only a few bone fragments, all of which show varying degrees of hypoplasia. © Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Archaeologists were particularly interested in the discovery of two skeletons, one of a woman and one of a child, which revealed the earliest known cases of tuberculosis.

Related Posts

The Discovery of the Polyxena Sarcophagus: Uncovering a Treasure from the Ancient World

A Groundbreaking Find In the summer of 1994, an archaeological team led by Dr. Erhan Özdoğan made a groundbreaking discovery near the ancient city of Troy in…

Exploring the Past: The Historic City of Sardis

The Rise of an Ancient Empire Lydian Legacy in Western Anatolia In the heart of what is now Turkey’s Manisa province, the ruins of Sardis tell an…

Sahara’s Silent Storytellers: The 9,000-Year-Old Giraffe Carvings of Niger

A Window to a Forgotten World In the vast expanse of Niger’s Sahara Desert, an extraordinary discovery takes us on a journey through time. The Dabous giraffe…

The Black Statue of Tutankhamun: A Guardian of Eternity

When Howard Carter uncovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, the world was stunned not only by the dazzling gold treasures but also by artifacts of profound…

The Gilded Child: Unveiling the Silent Voices of Ancient Egyptian Mummification

Among the vast treasures of ancient Egypt, few discoveries stir as much emotion as the delicate remains of children who never reached adulthood. While golden masks, colossal…

The Silent Children of Tutankhamun: Tragedy Within a Golden Tomb

Few archaeological discoveries have captured the world’s imagination like the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, unearthed by Howard Carter in 1922 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Hidden…