Mate Parica is an archaeologist from the University of Zadar in Croatia, and in 2021, he discovered the sunken settlement of Soline after spotting something strange off the coast of the famous Croatian island of Korcula, the reported birthplace of Marco Polo.
After spotting the darkened shape, he thought, “Maybe it is natural, maybe not,” he later told Reuters.
A specialist in underwater archaeology, Parica thought he’d spotted a manmade structure submerged off the island’s eastern coast, so he and a colleague went to investigate.