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A mysterious monolith has been discovered buried on
the sea bed off the coast of Sicily.
Broken into two parts, the rock has three holes that experts say could
not have formed naturally and it is thought the structure was crafted
10,000 years ago.
The Stonehenge-style monument could shed light on the earliest
civilisations to call the Mediterranean basin home.
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The archaeological site has been surveyed using geophysical and
geological methods.
One of the holes in the 15-tonne monolith travels through both parts,
while the other two are on the sides of the 39ft-long (12 metre) rock.
Zvi Ben-Avraham, of Tel Aviv University, and Emanuele Lodolo of the
National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in
Trieste, Italy, wrote in the Journal of Archaeological Science: ‘There
are no reasonable known natural processes that may produce these
elements’.
The monolith was discovered 131ft (40 metres) below the waves on what
was once an island called Pantelleria Vecchia Bank in the Sicilian
Channel.
The island was submerged during a flood 9,500 years ago, after the Last
Glacial Maximum.
This was the last period in the Earth's climate history during the last
glacial period when ice sheets were at their most prominent.
‘The Sicilian Channel is one of the shallow shelves of the central
Mediterranean region where the consequences of changing sea-level were
most dramatic and intense,' the experts explained.
'The ancient geography of the Mediterranean Basin was profoundly changed
by the increase in sea level following the Last Glacial Maximum.
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‘This global event has led to the retreat of the coastlines, especially
in lowland areas and shallow shelves, such as the Sicilian Channel.’
Beforehand, the shallowest north-western part of the Sicilian Channel
was connected to Sicily, forming a peninsula that was separated from
North Africa by just 30 miles (48km).
But most of the peninsula was flooded with the exception of some high
points that formed an archipelago of islands surrounded by shallow sea,
including Pantelleria Vecchia Bank.
The discovery of the monolith suggests a prehistoric civilisation
thrived on the island and ancient people may have colonised others
nearby.
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The study said: ‘This discovery provides evidence for
a significant Mesolithic human activity in the Sicilian Channel region.’
Dr Lodolo told Discovery News: This discovery reveals the technological
innovation and development achieved by the Mesolithic inhabitants in the
Sicilian Channel region,’ before the island was submerged 9,500 years
ago.
The monolith was hewn from a single block of stone, demonstrating the
ancient culture were able to extract, transport, cut and install the
monument.
‘Such an effort undoubtedly reveals important technical skills and great
engineering,’ he said.
Dr Lodolo believes the stone could have served a purpose to the
community, who were thought to have traded fish with neighbouring
islands, leading him to suggest it may have acted as a 'lighthouse' or
local beacon for seafarers, or even as a place to anchor boats.
It is not known whether the substantial stone stood alone or as part of
a group, as seen at Stonehenge, which is younger, constructed in around
2,600BC.
The famous Neolithic monument in Wiltshire is aligned to the sunset of
the winter solstice and the sunrise of the summer solstice and is
thought to have been used by ancient people to survey the heavens.
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It's thought the monument was also a meeting point for ancient people
and may have been a religious site at which people worshiped their
ancestors.
Some have suggested it was a place of the dead, while others say it was
a place of healing, because the bluestones could be struck to make a
noise thought to have mystic or healing powers.
Dr Lodolo believes submerged settlements in the Mediterranean Sea may
help fill in gaps in understanding about ancient cultures in the region.
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