Atlantis' Legendary Metal Found in Shipwreck

[peoli]

Source: Discovery News

Gleaming cast metal called orichalcum, which was said by Ancient Greeks to be found in Atlantis, has been recovered from a ship that sunk 2,600 years ago off the coast of Sicily.

The lumps of metal were arriving to Gela in southern Sicily, possibly coming from Greece or Asia Minor. The ship that was carrying them was likely caught in a storm and sunk just when it was about to enter the port.

"The wreck dates to the first half of the sixth century," Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily's superintendent of the Sea Office, told Discovery News. "It was found about 1,000 feet from Gela's coast at a depth of 10 feet."

"Nothing similar has ever been found," Tusa said. "We knew orichalcum from ancient texts and a few ornamental objects."

...............

Read more: http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/atlantis-legendary-metal-found-in-shipwreck-150106.htm

[elias49]

1. Ha! Cool story!

I never heard of orichalcum!

[DonCoquixote]

2. is this serious?

I mean, every fantasy rpg worth it;'s salt has this metal.

[herding cats]

3. It's serious.

The designers of those games were major geeks, and into stuff like this, too.

Here's the cliff notes style explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orichalcum#In_popular_culture

[Archae]

4. "Atlantis" never existed.

The story (from Plato) sounds like a retelling of tales of the volcanic destruction of Crete when Santorini blew up.

[Live and Learn]

5. Blasphemy!

But seriously, there is usually some underlying truth to these stories. They may get exaggerated over time but I don't find it hard to believe such a place existed.

[peoli]

6. As if you know.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. In that case, the claim of 'most likely' is actually geological concensus.

Thera did go kersplodey, in a big way, and the timeline is about right.

Plato's 'Atlantis' may never have been a real place at all. Santorini is the first, best, most likely current explanation for a location where an island that could have led to such a legend, could have existed.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. At the link was a squee factor 11...

[trusty elf]

11. What a cutie!

It looks like a cross between an octopus and a bunny.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

14. Haha, it does!! nt

[eppur_se_muova]

22. Isn't that the cat's pajamas !

Well ... somebody's pajamas ...



Check these little guys out:
https://www.google.com/search?q=stubby+squid&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=rfOvVMS-MsangwSbgITICA&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=998&bih=583

http://www.tumblr.com/search/dumpling+squid

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Some sort of tarnish resistant bronze?

[Yo_Mama]

10. That's brass. Seriously, brass

Analyzed with X-ray fluorescence by Dario Panetta, of TQ - Tecnologies for Quality, the 39 ingots turned to be an alloy made with 75-80 percent copper, 15-20 percent zinc and small percentages of nickel, lead and iron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass

[DetlefK]

12. But, but... shiny! And headlines!!!

[Yo_Mama]

13. Another desperate search for readership.

Archeologically it is very interesting, but this is hardly some revelation of Atlantis.

[eppur_se_muova]

24. It's interesting to know what the effect of that nickel would be ...

If the result were a more durable metal, that might have been worthy of note. The ancients did not know of the separate existence of nickel, and were unable to extract the metal from its ores. Perhaps some ancient copper mine contained an admixture of nickel ore, or nickel ore was added to copper ore in the refining process at one location, without any recognition of its role as a source of the alloying metal.

Etymology and history

When, in the medieval German Erzgebirge, or Ore Mountains, a red mineral resembling copper-ore was found, the miners looking for copper could extract none from it, as it contains none; worse yet, the ore also sickened them. They blamed a mischievous sprite of German mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick) for besetting the copper (German: Kupfer): the mischievous Kupfernickel.[4] This German equivalent of "copper-nickel" was used as early as 1694 (other old German synonyms are Rotnickelkies and Arsennickel).

In 1751, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt was attempting to extract copper from kupfernickel mineral, and obtained instead a white metal that he called after the spirit, nickel.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickeline#Etymology_and_history

[Yo_Mama]

28. My understanding is that yes, the location of the ore mined

was very important for the resulting alloy, and that when they ran out of one deposit they would try to find something similar.

Frustratingly, they don't give us details about the alloy. But the nickel should have made it tougher if it were present in more than trace quantities. Also I think it could have had an anti-oxidizing effect.

Most iron and copper ores would contain some nickel, I think? I bet if they did a very detailed analysis they could figure out where this came from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_copper_ores

[VWolf]

15. The real question is:

How much unobtainium did they find?

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

17. Is that the stuff Wolverine's claws are made out of?

[NuclearDem]

19. That's adamantium.

[arcane1]

27. Invented by Adam Ant

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

16. Atlantis, eh? Why not just say it's from the Land of Oz or Narnia?

Atlantis never existed. It was a parable told by Plato and nothing more.

[Octafish]

18. Fascinating!

From the article:

According to the ancient Greeks, it was invented by Cadmus, a Greek-Phoenician mythological character. The fourth century B.C. Greek philosopher Plato made orichalcum a legendary metal when he mentioned it in the Critias dialogue.

[jpak]

20. Way down, below the ocean....

[Xolodno]

21. Santorini = Atlantis

...and think that was the story was always referring to.

I'm of the opinion the story was embellished by others later for numerous reasons.

Just because "we" turn it into a myth doesn't mean it was a myth...The city of Troy was a myth until they found it...and shoot, evidence of King David's existence didn't show up until recently.

[PatSeg]

23. I agree

When it comes to ancient history, I tend to be open to possibilities. Myths often grew out of something that was real at one time. Archaeology makes new and exciting discoveries all the time.

[packman]

25. Most people don't know

Last edited Fri Jan 9, 2015, 01:53 PM - Edit history (1)

the ancient Atlantians were the first to discover and employ fracking - and it was all downhill from that point.

[chrisa]

26. Did they find any Orcish skulls on the ship?

That landing party must have gotten lost while raiding Azeroth.

[Gothmog]

29. This is an interesting discovery

[niyad]

30. very interesting.