12-meter-long man made monolith discovered off Italian coast

[Ichingcarpenter]

A massive monolith over 10,000 years old has been found in the Mediterranean Sea near Italy, scientists say. The block, which was apparently constructed by humans, bears traces of prehistoric civilization.
The 12-meter-long monolith “resting on the sea-floor” was located at a depth of 40 meters, in a shallow bank of the Sicilian Channel, says the report by ocean scientists from Italy and Israel published in July.

“It is broken into two parts, and has three regular holes: one at its end which passes through from part to part, the others in two of its sides.”

According to the study, the site was abandoned at about 9,350 ± 200 years BP (Before Present) and the morphological evidence, underwater observations and results of petrographic analysis suggest that the monolith was made by humans.

“This discovery provides evidence for a significant Mesolithic human activity in the Sicilian Channel region.”

The scientists say the block was “cut and extracted as a single stone from the outer rectilinear ridge” which was about 300 meters to the south, “and then transported and possibly erected.

“From the size of the monolith, we may presume that it weighs about 15 tons,” the study says, adding that its function hasn’t been specified yet.





http://www.rt.com/news/311675-mediterranean-human-made-monolith/

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Science Abstract from another source.

Abstract
The ancient geography of the Mediterranean Basin was profoundly changed by the increase in sea level following the Last Glacial Maximum. This global event has led to the retreat of the coastlines, especially in lowland areas and shallow shelves, such as the Sicilian Channel.

The NW sector of this shelf, known as Adventure Plateau, is studded by isolated shoals mostly composed of Late Miocene carbonate rocks and by some volcanic edifices. These shoals, until at least the Early Holocene, formed an archipelago of several islands separated by stretches of extremely shallow sea. One of these submerged features – the Pantelleria Vecchia Bank – located 60 km south of Sicily, has been extensively surveyed using geophysical and geological methods.

It is composed of two main shoals, connected seaward by a rectilinear ridge which encloses an embayment. Here we present morphological evidence, underwater observations, and results of petrographic analysis of a man-made, 12 m long monolith resting on the sea-floor of the embayment at a water depth of 40 m. It is broken into two parts, and has three regular holes: one at its end which passes through from part to part, the others in two of its sides.

The monolith is composed of calcirudites of Late Pleistocene age, as determined from radiocarbon measurements conducted on several shell fragments extracted from the rock samples. The same age and composition characterize the metre-size blocks forming the rectilinear ridge. The rest of the rocks composing the shoals are mostly Tortonian limestones–sandstones, as revealed by their fossil content.

Extrapolating ages from the local sea level curve, we infer that seawater inundated the inner lands at 9350 ± 200 year B.P., the upper limit which can be reasonably taken for the site abandonment. This discovery provides evidence for a significant Mesolithic human activity in the Sicilian Channel region.


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X15300535


So really what it says is that the object is at least 11 thousand years old and could be older, this is the dating of when the area was flooded not when it was constructed. Also interesting is that Malta lies in this area too.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Map of the area including Malta.

[DonnaM]

2. This is hugely interesting!

Many thanks for posting - am going to read more about it and thank you for your follow-up post with more info.

[Delphinus]

3. Fascinating!

I'm so happy I clicked this link!

[jomin41]

4. Thanks for posting. Fascinating!

"The vast majority of marine geophysicist and archaeologists have now realized that to trace the origins of civilization in the Mediterranean region, it is necessary to focus research in the now submerged shelf areas."

[longship]

5. We've seen this kind of thing before.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Thank you! First time to hear about this discovery. Amazing. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

8. Scientific Discovery: Stonehenge-Style Monolith Found Off Sicily Offers Clues To Ancient Mediterrane

Scientific Discovery: Stonehenge-Style Monolith Found Off Sicily Offers Clues To Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations

By Michael Kaplan @michaeld_kaplan [e-mail] on August 09 2015 3:03 PM EDT


Archeologists have discovered a Stonehenge-style monolith on the seafloor off Sicily, offering new insight into historic Mediterranean civilizations. The mysterious man-made stone carving is believed to date back some 10,000 years and would have required skills not often associated with ancient societies, Discovery News reported.

The stone block, weighing some 15 tons and broken into two pieces, was lost as sea levels rose and flooded a number of islands that once thrived with civilization. The monolith was found about 131 feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea on what was once an island in the Sicilian Channel, but was covered during a flood some 9,500 years ago as the last ice age retreated.

“This discovery reveals the technological innovation and development achieved by the Mesolithic inhabitants in the Sicilian Channel region,” Emanuele Lodolo, from the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, told Discovery News. “Such an effort undoubtedly reveals important technical skills and great engineering."

The finding was reported in a study published by Lodolo and Zvi Ben-Abraham, a professor of earth sciences at Tel Aviv University, in the Journal of Archeological Science.

More:
http://www.ibtimes.com/scientific-discovery-stonehenge-style-monolith-found-sicily-offers-clues-ancient-2045516

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. Ancient Monolith Suggests Humans Lived on Now-Underwater Archipelago

What's more, the monolith doesn't match the roughly 10-million-year-old rocks on the ocean floor; rather it has a composition similar to rocks from a ridge that are found in shallow marine area, the researchers wrote.

"This is one of the most important details in supporting the idea that the monolith is not made by nature or phenomena, but is man-made," Lodolo said.

Ancient archipelago

The researchers dated the stone in the monolith to the Late Pleistocene, about 40,000 years ago during the last ice age, by extracting several shell fragments from the rock and doing radiocarbon dating tests on it. It's unclear when people made the stone into a monolith, but the researchers say that varying sea levels offer a clue.


The Last Glacial Maximum began about 19,000 years ago, the researchers said. At that time, Europe was about 40 percent larger than it is now, but as the glaciers melted, sea levels rose about 410 feet (125 m) from then until present day, Lodolo told Live Science.

"This global event has led to the retreat of the coastlines, especially in lowland areas and shallow shelves, such as the Sicilian Channel," the researchers wrote in the study.

Before the sea level in the Mediterranean rose, an archipelago existed between Sicily and modern-day Tunisia. Perhaps people lived on these islands and constructed the monolith, Lodolo said.

"[The archipelago] was like a bridge between the European world and the African world," Lodolo said. "It's quite reasonable to think it was inhabited by some settlers."



snip out of the article


http://www.livescience.com/51848-monolith-sicilian-channel.html?cmpid=514645_20150813_50791826&adbid=631971045029756928&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15428397