SHAFAQNA- Scientists have acquired underwater sonar images of a site containing cluster of rocks and unnatural rectangular shapes, hundreds of meters beneath the sea along the east coast of Haida Gwaii. It has been estimated that the line of rocks is at least 13,700 years old and makes it the oldest fishing weir discovered in the world. The rectangular marks, on the other hand, are most probably the sites of ancient camps of the same ae.
University of Victoria archeologist Quentin Mackie said, “Our stuff is different. It’s a lot older and we know nothing. We are the first people to see that it’s like outer space imagery but you know people have been there, not just passing through, but that was their homeland”.
He states that this discovery is just like a voyage of discovery of a lost world that people have not looked at for so long. A remotely operated vehicle is expected to search the authenticity of the sites, once confirmed and identified these sites would be the earliest evidence of human habitation in Canada. It would also shed new light on the time period and the location where the first people came to the Americas.
Mr. Mackie along with his colleague Daryl Fedje works with UVic and the Tula Foundation research centre. They are leading the project of sonar images that is probing hundreds of metres beneath the sea along the east coast of Haida Gwaii. This project is supported by Gwaii Haanas National Park.
The submerged area that this team is searching was a lush, rolling landscape thousands of years ago. The land must have provided a migration corridor for both game animals.