It’s not the fabled Atlantis, but it is tantalizing: Researchers studying the Mediterranean’s Sicilian Channel, an area now underwater but partially exposed as recently as 9,000 years ago, found a 40-foot-long monolith, broken in two, with uniform, regularly spaced holes that could not be explained through any natural process. Analysis confirmed the monolith was quarried from a rock formation about 1,000 feet from its resting place.
Still a mystery: Who created the monolith and other possibly man-made features nearby, including concentric circles and what may be a breakwater that’s more than 250 feet long? “We have opened the door to the unknown,” notes lead researcher Emanuele Lodolo, whose team published the find in the September issue of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
[This article originally appeared in print as "What Lies Beneath."]
