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A Submerged Monolith Near Sicily: Evidence for Mesolithic Human Activity
- tdonia 11y agohttp://xkcd.com/1190/ http://xkcd.com/1190/ ?
- cstross 11y agoOn a similar note, see also Doggerland (the large, submerged peninsula off the north-west coast of Europe, of which the British Isles are the only surviving above-surface relics today): http://education.nationalgeographic.com/maps/doggerland/ http://education.nationalgeographic.com/maps/doggerland/ A lot of previously-inhabited territory -- presumably fertile lowlands! -- was inundated as sea levels rose after the last ice age ended, around 9500-8500 years ago.
- williamjennings 11y agoThere are a lot of geolocations in that area where you can still walk out onto sandbars during low tide. In this map, much of the green zone around Denmark is seasonally 'land'. Ye auld name for that peninsula, "Jutland", implicates inasmuch.
- JacobAldridge 11y agoThat's the first time I've ever seen the Netherlands described as "higher ground"!
- ftcHn 11y ago9350 ± 200 year B.P. B.P. == Before Present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Present
- javert 11y agoJust what we need, yet another time scale that is totally arbitrary. How utterly worthless. Amplified by the fact that the word "present" refers to a shifting moment in time, so it's an abuse of English to use it this way.
- whyenot 11y agoIt's the standard dating scheme used in archaeology and some areas of geology for material that is carbon dated. As mentioned on the wikipedia page that OP linked to, "present" is actually a standard date: January 1, 1950; chosen because material from later dates can not be reliably measured [using carbon dating] due to nuclear testing.
- javert 11y agoI'm aware of that. > "present" is actually a standard date: January 1, 1950 which is an abuse of the English langauge, since "present" actually means "now." Scientists should not overload pre-existing English words to mean other things.
- EdwardDiego 11y ago> Scientists should not overload pre-existing English words to mean other things Why not? Because it confuses the overly-pedantic?
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- Trombone12 11y agoBah! I say that the plebs outside the ivory towers should stop using overloading __scientific__ terminology! Have you ever used "dynamic" while not talking about physical forces? BOOM: you are an abuser! Repent! Repent!
- carbocation 11y agoI would state the argument as follows: We should use the term "before nuclear testing", abbreviated as BNT. It is more precise than "before present", which will become more inaccurate over time, whereas "before nuclear testing" will always have the same meaning.
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- rational-future 11y agoI've done some diving in the Black Sea and have stumbled upon a number of structures that looked like human-made artifacts. They are near the shore lines as they were before the end of the last glacial period. I'm personally 99% sure there was a somewhat advanced civilization at that time.
- benbreen 11y agoOne theory for the urheimat (homeland) of the Indo-Europeans and the technology of chariots involves the Black Sea littoral: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurgan_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurgan_hypothesis
- turder 11y agoLook up Black Sea deluge theory. Black sea was supposedly flooded (a bit later than the actual sea level rise from the ice melting after the ice age), around 7500 years ago, with levels rising up to 70m and turning it from a freshwater lake into Black Sea, and increasing its size 1.5x-2x. That event is one of possible explanations for the spread of what became Indo-European language/culture/people group, which a good deal of us belong to. Until the evidence for the Black Sea deluge was found, the Indo-Europeans were theoreticized to have come from area north of Black Sea (it is still so), but I think the initial push came from the now flooded areas.
- abritinthebay 11y agoWhile true that it's a hypothesis - there's very little evidence for it and a bunch against.
- mmanfrin 11y agoEasier to read: Look up Black Sea deluge theory. Black sea was supposedly flooded (a bit later than the actual sea level rise from the ice melting after the ice age), around 7500 years ago, with levels rising up to 70m and turning it from a freshwater lake into Black Sea, and increasing its size 1.5x-2x. That event is one of possible explanations for the spread of what became Indo-European language/culture/people group, which a good deal of us belong to. Until the evidence for the Black Sea deluge was found, the Indo-Europeans were theoreticized to have come from area north of Black Sea (it is still so), but I think the initial push came from the now flooded areas.
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- ams6110 11y agoAll these worlds are yours, except Sicily. Attempt no contact there.
- mudil 11y agoThe most important Mesolithic site is Göbekli Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe It is truly revolutionizing our understanding of mesolithic culture.
- coldcode 11y agoI wonder if it's black.
- RobertoG 11y agoIt could be that the flood myths (Atlantis, the floods in the bible and a lot of others) come from this time. That would suggest that oral knowledge survive thousands of years (a little more than DVDs). It's pretty remarkable.
- k8tte 11y agoI agree, and many more have been making this argument over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth#Claims_of_historicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth#Claims_of_historici... Also, if you find this fascinating I suggest go watch The Exodus Decoded, www.imdb.com/title/tt0847162
- turder 11y agoNot just thousands, try tens of thousands. For example, Australian Aborigines still have stories about the huge, man-eating lizards. It was considered just a standard myth until we discovered fossils of Megalania, a huge lizard matching the description, that went extinct soon after humans came to Australia. Closer to the actual sea level rise topic, tribes of coastal northern Australia still have names and relatively precise description of land features (mountains etc) that are now underwater, but were land until 9k years ago.
- straws 11y agoShould have started with a service-oriented architecture, then their civilization would have never collapsed.
- Asbostos 11y agoI didn't see any discussion of this in the article, but could it have just fallen off a ship, maybe from the Romans or something? It looks like the only dating they've done so far is of the area it was found in, not the monolith itself.
- jccooper 11y agoIt seems to have been made from stone from a nearby structure. It would have been underwater by the time anybody with ships came by.
- madaxe_again 11y agoOK, read the paper. Don't get too excited. From the sound of it, it could be an artefact, those could be harbour walls, but they could also be looking at some nice old karst that happens to have weathered into rectilinear shapes.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago...except for the regular drilled holes in the monolith?
- madaxe_again 11y agoThey're not regular, from the paper, they're holes. You get holes in rocks for all sorts of reasons, from biogenic processes through to inclusions of softer or soluble rock. Just saying that at this stage it's all quite light on evidence.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoThis is old enough to have been Neanderthal?