As many of you know, a broken monolith was uncovered in the waters off the coast of Sicily, and this massive piece of stone is believed to have been raised at least 9,350 years ago (though it is likely older), according to the scientists who discovered it. They speculate that the Mesolithic monolith might have served as a marker for sea-travelers in the Sicilian Channel since it is near what was then the sea coast. Naturally, this led to some bad reporting. It was bad enough that Discovery News mistakenly claimed that the stone was 3.2 feet tall, when it is in fact 12 meters (39 feet) tall, or that an Australian publication said it was carved from an outcropping “300” away, leaving out the “meters.” But then came the Atlantis crew—and just months after another claim for “Atlantean” metal off the Sicilian coast! Rob Waugh of Yahoo! News inexplicably stopped a straightforward article on the monolith to declare, halfway through, that “Some interpretations of Plato’s stories of ‘Atlantis’ identify the legendary ‘lost’ island with Sicily.” The scare quotes are in the original, presumably to distance the author from his own sensationalism. Stuart Hooper of 21st Century Wire, an alternative and conspiracy publication, asks whether the monument was a sign of Atlantis, asking whether readers “believe there are huge chapters of human history missing from the textbooks?” Worse, the Inquisitr, a content farm masquerading as a newspaper that proudly tells readers that it writes stories faster than it checks the facts, asked whether this was “new evidence of Atlantis.” Even though researchers found no artifacts or other signs of human occupation around the monoliths, the Inquisitr declared it evidence of “a mysterious civilization that was submerged by the sea, just as in the ancient legend of the lost civilization of Atlantis.” Atlantis was not mysterious to Plato, the oldest source for the Atlantis myth, since he described it in excruciating detail.
It goes without saying that there is no evidence of a lost kingdom on the order of Plato’s fictitious city-state anywhere in the Sicilian Channel, nor anything that matches Plato’s details. The only part that comes even close is Plato’s claim in the Critias that the Law of Poseidon was “inscribed by the first kings on a pillar of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon” (trans. Benjamin Jowett). This pillar is not made out of any species of metal, orichalcum or otherwise, nor is it at the center of Sicily, in either its current or Ice Age size. So why do fringe types—and often enough the mainstream media—reach for Atlantis to discuss something as straightforward and easily understood as “big old rock found underwater”? The metaphor isn’t necessary to understand the story, and it contributes nothing to it. The answer can only be that “Atlantis” conjures up ancient mysteries and fantastical adventure, while the truth doesn’t quite appeal to the romance of antiquity.
14 Comments
Shane Sullivan
8/10/2015 07:44:30 am
"... while the truth doesn’t quite appeal to the romance of antiquity."
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Clete
8/10/2015 08:01:33 am
Does it have barely readable scratchs on it? Then the person who needs to identify it and date it is none other than Scott Wolter. Spare no expense, fly him to the site immediately, have him don scuba gear. It may be dangerous, but he is a manly man and no risk to life and limb is too great for him to uncover the truth. He will examine it for thirty-six seconds, rise to the surface and proclaim "It's from the Knights Templar proving that Henry Sinclair was here and if you don't believe me, then you are just not looking at the evidence. You can believe me, I put my extensive experience as an examiner of concrete behind my finding."
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Jose S
8/11/2015 02:18:30 pm
Clete,
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Jim Furrer
8/17/2015 01:57:19 pm
Clete, thank you, I had wonderful laugh with your "concrete" line, it was hilarious. And not that far off the mark .... sadly.
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Bob Jase
8/10/2015 08:10:53 am
What? No photos of the remains of the pre-human sapiens who danced around it's base? Clearly there is still research to do.
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David Bradbury
8/10/2015 08:37:28 am
Undersea shoal which was an island 10,000 years ago. Clear signs of human activity. Just because this pillar doesn't look very sophisticated, that doesn't mean there are no Atlantean video recordings buried under the silt.
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Only Me
8/10/2015 09:00:22 am
Dear God, they compared the site to Göbekli Tepe. That means it's only a matter of time before Andrew Collins comes running to enfold it into his ancient white Europeans nonsense.
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Koment T
8/10/2015 09:50:38 am
The reaction of Graham Hancock to this discovery was quite idiotic.
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8/10/2015 10:08:21 am
I love the part where he accuses scientists of trying to suppress the truth--by "embarrassingly" publishing it in a scientific journal!
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David Bradbury
8/10/2015 08:20:33 pm
Does anybody know which particular archaeologist he's quoting here:
Shane Sullivan
8/10/2015 11:25:45 am
"ANOTHER MEGALITH THAT REWRITES HISTORY IS FOUND...."
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Jonathan
8/10/2015 04:21:36 pm
Argh, Atlantis. That gives me an idea for Scott Wolter; More's Utopia was a real place--a lost Templar Kingdom in America! That might be fun.
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Jean Stone
8/11/2015 08:37:44 am
Pillar found underwater? Forget Atlantis and the Knights Templar, this is proof of nothing less than the existence of the Deep Ones!
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Artor
8/22/2015 04:33:23 pm
"It was bad enough that Discovery News mistakenly claimed that the stone was 3.2 feet tall, when it is in fact 12 meters (39 feet) tall..."
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