Beneath Lake Michigan lies a 9,000-year-old structure discovered in 2007, featuring stone arrangements and a mastodon carving. Dating around 7000BC, it is one of the earliest known prehistoric art examples in North America. The site features large granite rings and a stone line indicating its significance to ancient peoples, possibly for ceremonial or practical uses. The location, once dry land, suggests prehistoric cultures directed animal movements for hunting, reshaping perspectives on early human history in North America.
Experts believe the relief served as a time marker, dating the structure to around 7000BC using sonar technology. That would make it one of the earliest known examples of prehistoric art on the continent.
The new findings suggest the site held significant importance for ancient peoples, as the dual granite rings, deliberately arranged stones, and carved prehistoric animal all point to a ceremonial, practical function, or possibly both.
While Lake Michigan is the second-largest of the Great Lakes, it would have been dry land or part of a wetland when the stones were erected.
Dr John O'Shea from the University of Michigan believes that the stones served as a drive lane to direct large animals to the specific area where they could be killed.
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