The confirmation of the TAF1 structure adds to the 'Göbekli Tepe' effect—proving that hunter-gatherers were capable of massive engineering projects long before farming.
However, I’d challenge the 'Legend of Ys' connection. The gap between this wall (5500 BC) and the Ys legend (Medieval) is larger than the gap between the Pyramids and the iPhone.
The romantic story of a 'Lost Palace' actually diminishes the real genius here: This wasn't a vanity project for a King; it was a massive, industrial-scale food engine built by 'nomads.' The truth—that they were engineers, not just wanderers—is cooler than the myth.
I'd say the existence of TAF1 confirms sustained human activity, investment, and eventual loss of coastal infrastructure in this region. That kind of reality is precisely the sort of long-term, repeated experience that can, over deep time, be mythologized into stories of drowned places. TAF1 doesn’t explain the legend of Ys as history, but to me it strengthens the case that Breton submerged-land myths emerged from lived experiences of coastal construction and loss, rather than from pure imagination.
"There is another legend told in a Breton saying, that when Paris is swallowed, the city of Ys will rise up from under the waves (in Breton, Par Is means "similar to Ys"):
Humans build systems to stabilize instability. The world updates anyway.
The wall isn't hubris—it's memory. Infrastructure outlives intention. Catastrophe survives as story when maps fail.
Ys isn't fantasy. It's compressed archive of climate shock. Systems designed for one condition meet conditions they cannot hold. The threshold passes. The infrastructure remains. The story persists because the pattern repeats.
What jumps to my mind is that this find is a reminder that coastlines are anything but fixed. A structure now ~9 meters underwater makes sense once you remember that relative sea level around Brittany was still several meters lower ~7,000 years ago—and some of these walls may have been built to work with tides rather than sit fully inland.
It also invites an interesting comparison with today. After the last Ice Age, sea level rose rapidly at times, even though warming rates were slower than today, largely because there was simply far more ice available to melt. Now, human-driven warming is faster, the remaining ice sheets are smaller, yet projected rates of sea-level rise this century are comparable to—or may exceed—most of the last ~7,000 years.
The critical difference, of course, is scale: early Holocene coastlines were sparsely populated, while today hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars of infrastructure sit near sea level. The same physical process has vastly greater consequences this time around.
Late Prof. James Vendettuoli, PhD, Harvard-History, Philosophy, Social Science, and author of (now after reading this article) an even moreso aptly-titled, "Religions Alive" (1983, Internet Archive), further seals my understanding, apropos one lecture opening of his in particular: "Myths are that which is true of reality," this 21C article as well bridges, as truths naturally passed on to generations of children.
I enjoy your articles, thank you. However, my heart still sinks when I see use of terms such as "man-made". Are we not able to move on from seeing humanity as dominated by one gender?
Over a decade ago I read an excellent four-book series called "The King of Ys" by Poul Anderson and Karen Anderson, that is a retelling of the story of the destruction of the city of Ys, set in the declining years of the Roman Empire. This essay brought it all back to me.
The duration of time from creation of Adam & Eve to the Great Flood was 1,656 years, longer than the duration of the collapse of Rome about 476 AD to Present. Subsequently, why couldn't have technology advanced as fast within 1,656 years compared to what has occurred since Rome collapsed about 1,550 years ago?
Remember, the Great Flood destroyed absolutely everything man had created. There is even evidence that the mountains and continents were created based on the fact that fossils of ocean critters (sic) can be found at the upper elevations of mountains. The latter created an even more thorough destruction of everything mankind created, except the subject underwater TAF1 wall and several other engineering artifacts that survived the Flood.
Fascinating find.
The confirmation of the TAF1 structure adds to the 'Göbekli Tepe' effect—proving that hunter-gatherers were capable of massive engineering projects long before farming.
However, I’d challenge the 'Legend of Ys' connection. The gap between this wall (5500 BC) and the Ys legend (Medieval) is larger than the gap between the Pyramids and the iPhone.
The romantic story of a 'Lost Palace' actually diminishes the real genius here: This wasn't a vanity project for a King; it was a massive, industrial-scale food engine built by 'nomads.' The truth—that they were engineers, not just wanderers—is cooler than the myth.
I'd say the existence of TAF1 confirms sustained human activity, investment, and eventual loss of coastal infrastructure in this region. That kind of reality is precisely the sort of long-term, repeated experience that can, over deep time, be mythologized into stories of drowned places. TAF1 doesn’t explain the legend of Ys as history, but to me it strengthens the case that Breton submerged-land myths emerged from lived experiences of coastal construction and loss, rather than from pure imagination.
most excitingly I get to relisten to one of the best albums ever produced, Ys by Joanna Newsom
https://weareunderused.substack.com/p/joanna-newsom-ys
"There is another legend told in a Breton saying, that when Paris is swallowed, the city of Ys will rise up from under the waves (in Breton, Par Is means "similar to Ys"):
Pa vo beuzet Paris
Ec'h adsavo Ker Is
When Paris will be engulfed
Will re-emerge the City of Ys"
Unbelievably fascinating! It seems the tide beats all… but it is incredible to think how prehistoric this wall is!
Humans build systems to stabilize instability. The world updates anyway.
The wall isn't hubris—it's memory. Infrastructure outlives intention. Catastrophe survives as story when maps fail.
Ys isn't fantasy. It's compressed archive of climate shock. Systems designed for one condition meet conditions they cannot hold. The threshold passes. The infrastructure remains. The story persists because the pattern repeats.
"Plus what I wrote is true" I don't dispute that at all. Just thinking of the children.
"La cathédrale engloutie" is one of my favorite Debussy compositions!
That made me think one more time about civilizations. Thank you for sharing.
The placement of the stone walls looks like a viaduct or bridges, to me. Reminds me of Australia's Great Ocean Road. It's how you cross the inlets.
Fascinating.
What jumps to my mind is that this find is a reminder that coastlines are anything but fixed. A structure now ~9 meters underwater makes sense once you remember that relative sea level around Brittany was still several meters lower ~7,000 years ago—and some of these walls may have been built to work with tides rather than sit fully inland.
It also invites an interesting comparison with today. After the last Ice Age, sea level rose rapidly at times, even though warming rates were slower than today, largely because there was simply far more ice available to melt. Now, human-driven warming is faster, the remaining ice sheets are smaller, yet projected rates of sea-level rise this century are comparable to—or may exceed—most of the last ~7,000 years.
The critical difference, of course, is scale: early Holocene coastlines were sparsely populated, while today hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars of infrastructure sit near sea level. The same physical process has vastly greater consequences this time around.
Late Prof. James Vendettuoli, PhD, Harvard-History, Philosophy, Social Science, and author of (now after reading this article) an even moreso aptly-titled, "Religions Alive" (1983, Internet Archive), further seals my understanding, apropos one lecture opening of his in particular: "Myths are that which is true of reality," this 21C article as well bridges, as truths naturally passed on to generations of children.
I enjoy your articles, thank you. However, my heart still sinks when I see use of terms such as "man-made". Are we not able to move on from seeing humanity as dominated by one gender?
Over a decade ago I read an excellent four-book series called "The King of Ys" by Poul Anderson and Karen Anderson, that is a retelling of the story of the destruction of the city of Ys, set in the declining years of the Roman Empire. This essay brought it all back to me.
https://www.amazon.com/Roma-Mater-King-Ys-Book-ebook/dp/B00PI1829W?crid=1X28OWXVZFGN0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TRjZoojbyx__LqF3elwlAMLSNj_bnvRcUQDvfXE4d3NiqgMN-A-rHT
The duration of time from creation of Adam & Eve to the Great Flood was 1,656 years, longer than the duration of the collapse of Rome about 476 AD to Present. Subsequently, why couldn't have technology advanced as fast within 1,656 years compared to what has occurred since Rome collapsed about 1,550 years ago?
Remember, the Great Flood destroyed absolutely everything man had created. There is even evidence that the mountains and continents were created based on the fact that fossils of ocean critters (sic) can be found at the upper elevations of mountains. The latter created an even more thorough destruction of everything mankind created, except the subject underwater TAF1 wall and several other engineering artifacts that survived the Flood.