Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In 2015, researchers announced the discovery of a 12-metre-long underwater monolith on the submerged Pantelleria Vecchia Bank in the Sicilian Channel. If human-made, it would date to a time more than 9,000 years ago—long before any known megalith-building cultures in the central Mediterranean.
Since then, new studies have looked at mysterious underwater ridges, concentric ring structures, and the ancient landscape that once connected this area to Sicily. But do these features really point to a lost Mesolithic culture with construction capabilities, or are they the product of natural geological processes?
#ancient #archaeology #megaliths
✨ IN THIS EPISODE
00:00 The Underwater Monolith Discovery
01:13 The Lost Land Beneath the Sicilian Channel
03:26 The Underwater Ridges: Evidence of Human Construction?
05:09 The Mysterious Underwater Rings
06:54 The Scientific Case Against a Lost Monument
Correction:
00:48 anthropogenic
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✨ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIALS
BlueSky: @MegalithHunter.bsky.social
✨ REFERENCES
Galili, E.; Horwitz, L.K.; Patania, I.; Bar, A.; Ogloblin Ramirez, I. Identifying Anthropogenic Versus Natural Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes: Two Case Studies from the Sicilian Channel. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2024, 12, 1981. doi.org/10.3390/jmse12111981
Lodolo, E. and Ben-Avraham, Z., 2015. A submerged monolith in the Sicilian Channel (central Mediterranean Sea): Evidence for Mesolithic human activity. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 3, pp.398-407.
Tusa, S. Il popolamento di Pantelleria e Lampedusa dalle prime frequentazioni neolitiche al villaggio di Mursia. Sci. Dell’antichità 2016, 22, 363–385.
Lodolo, E.; Nannini, P.; Baradello, L.; Ben-Avraham, Z. Two enigmatic ridges in the Pantelleria Vecchia Bank (NW Sicilian Channel). Heliyon 2023, 9, e14575.
Lodolo, E.; Baradello, L.; Ben-Avraham, Z. Exploring the nature of the concentric half-rings in the Pantelleria Vecchia Bank (Sicilian Channel). Soc. Sci. Humanit. Open 2024, 9, 100892.
Lodolo, E., Loreto, M.F., Melini, D., Spada, G. and Civile, D., 2022. Palaeo-Shoreline Configuration of the Adventure Plateau (Sicilian Channel) at the Last Glacial Maximum. Geosciences, 12(3), p.125.
✨ PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
Google Earth
Locations
CC BY 4.0 DEED creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Figures from the paper by Galili, E., (2024) referenced above.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Figures from the paper by Lodolo, E., (2023) referenced above.
Figures from the paper by Lodolo, E., (2024) referenced above.
In 2015, researchers announced the discovery of a 12-metre-long underwater monolith on the submerged Pantelleria Vecchia Bank in the Sicilian Channel. If human-made, it would date to a time more than 9,000 years ago—long before any known megalith-building cultures in the central Mediterranean.
Since then, new studies have looked at mysterious underwater ridges, concentric ring structures, and the ancient landscape that once connected this area to Sicily. But do these features really point to a lost Mesolithic culture with construction capabilities, or are they the product of natural geological processes?
#ancient #archaeology #megaliths
✨ IN THIS EPISODE
00:00 The Underwater Monolith Discovery
01:13 The Lost Land Beneath the Sicilian Channel
03:26 The Underwater Ridges: Evidence of Human Construction?
05:09 The Mysterious Underwater Rings
06:54 The Scientific Case Against a Lost Monument
Correction:
00:48 anthropogenic
✨ JOIN MY CHANNEL
youtube.com/channel/UC0Hs5t0U6Uf993Tba22YmKA/join
✨ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIALS
BlueSky: @MegalithHunter.bsky.social
✨ REFERENCES
Galili, E.; Horwitz, L.K.; Patania, I.; Bar, A.; Ogloblin Ramirez, I. Identifying Anthropogenic Versus Natural Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes: Two Case Studies from the Sicilian Channel. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2024, 12, 1981. doi.org/10.3390/jmse12111981
Lodolo, E. and Ben-Avraham, Z., 2015. A submerged monolith in the Sicilian Channel (central Mediterranean Sea): Evidence for Mesolithic human activity. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 3, pp.398-407.
Tusa, S. Il popolamento di Pantelleria e Lampedusa dalle prime frequentazioni neolitiche al villaggio di Mursia. Sci. Dell’antichità 2016, 22, 363–385.
Lodolo, E.; Nannini, P.; Baradello, L.; Ben-Avraham, Z. Two enigmatic ridges in the Pantelleria Vecchia Bank (NW Sicilian Channel). Heliyon 2023, 9, e14575.
Lodolo, E.; Baradello, L.; Ben-Avraham, Z. Exploring the nature of the concentric half-rings in the Pantelleria Vecchia Bank (Sicilian Channel). Soc. Sci. Humanit. Open 2024, 9, 100892.
Lodolo, E., Loreto, M.F., Melini, D., Spada, G. and Civile, D., 2022. Palaeo-Shoreline Configuration of the Adventure Plateau (Sicilian Channel) at the Last Glacial Maximum. Geosciences, 12(3), p.125.
✨ PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
Google Earth
Locations
CC BY 4.0 DEED creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Figures from the paper by Galili, E., (2024) referenced above.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Figures from the paper by Lodolo, E., (2023) referenced above.
Figures from the paper by Lodolo, E., (2024) referenced above.
