Marine Mesolithic Megalith in the Med?

[Yazata]

A new report in the Journal of Archeological Science claims the discovery of a 12 meter monolith on the floor of the Mediterranean sea, in waters now 40 m deep, south of Sicily.

This is an area what was submerged by rising sea levels about 8,350 years ago, as the last ice age ended. During the ice age, this apparently was an archipelago of islands.

The monolith, a tall crudely cylindrical rock, isn't much to look at now, lying on its side on the seafloor. It looks to me like a natural rock. But the article claims that it was cut as one piece from a rocky outcrop 300 m away, moved and erected. It weighed about 15 tons. And it appears to have a couple of large holes bored in it, near what was once its base. Perhaps sacred objects of some sort were placed in there.

If there's any truth to this, it's evidence that relatively sophisticated cultures existed at a very early date in the now-flooded Mediterranean basin near today's Malta. (Which hosted its own architecturally sophisticated megalithic culture much later, perhaps about 3,500 BCE.)

http://www.news.com.au/technology/scienc...7476030047

[C C]

[...] If there's any truth to this, it's evidence that relatively sophisticated cultures existed at a very early date in the now-flooded Mediterranean basin near today's Malta. (Which hosted its own architecturally sophisticated megalithic culture much later, perhaps about 3,500 BCE.)

Since "9350 years ago" wasn't necessarily when it was hewed, but only submerged, I suppose there's the very remote potential for it to be almost as old or older than the 11,600 year old structure in Turkey. Considering Easter Island, etc, the low-tech cultures of islands seem to have had an affinity for erecting sacred stone objects close to the beaches or shorelines.

"The nearby island of Malta is home to a series of mysterious megalithic temples. These have been tentatively dated to some 5600 years ago. The oldest known structure is at Gobekli Tepe, in south-eastern Turkey. Carbon dating places the hewed stone structures — including 200 pillars weighing up to 20 tons — to be about 11,600 years old."