Analysis of the fossil at the site – the fossil bed – found that it was located in an outcrop surrounded by a bog. This natural defense was then reinforced by a rampart consisting of a moat and palisade—wooden posts in the earth—running around the site.
The entrance was specially defended and guarded by two huge buildings with strange elements in the shape of crab claws. These defenses appear to have been later additions, for part of the original ditch had to be filled in for them.
“The site reveals a unique, possibly defensive architecture. This shows an increase in social tensions in the Neolithic period,” said Ard.
The impressive defenses may have been insufficient, as all the buildings at Le Peu appear to have burned to the ground around 4400 BC. The destruction helped preserve the site.
Dr. Ard and the team hope that further research at Le Peu will continue to shed new light on the lives of people we only know from their traces to the dead. Research has already shown that their habitat was of gigantic size, something that had never been seen before in a prehistoric Atlantean society.
The team study appeared in antique. This article is based on a press release from Cambridge University Press.
