Dr. Mark Holley, professor of underwater archeology at Northwestern Michigan University, announced the discovery of an ancient structure beneath Grand Traverse Bay in Lake Michigan (USA), according to the website The Brighter Side of News on January 11.
Nicknamed “Stonehenge in Michigan”, the structure is located approximately 12 m below the surface of Lake Michigan. While smaller in size than Stonehenge in England, the stone pillars at the bottom of the lake are carefully arranged, showing that the ancients had calculations when building this complex.
Stretched over 1.6 km, the complex includes rocks of different sizes, from as small as a ball to as large as a car.
One rock in particular attracted the attention of researchers. Measuring 1.5 meters wide and 1.2 meters high, the rock is carved with the image of a mastodon, providing a rare glimpse into when this animal was still present in Michigan.
The mastodon-shaped rock bridges the gap between human history and the prehistoric world, and deepens the mysteries of Grand Traverse Bay.
The ancient stone structure at the bottom of Lake Michigan is estimated to be about 9,000 years old, which is 4,000 years older than England’s Stonehenge complex. This was the period following the end of the Ice Age and the formation of Grand Traverse Bay, when the lake bottom had not yet sunk and was flooded.
It’s still unclear why the ancients built the rock structure in Grand Traverse Bay. According to some hypotheses, it is possible that prehistoric people arranged stones to serve the purpose of hunting, or it could also be used as an ancient calendar, based on astronomical events like at Stonehenge.