Divers Found Cargo That Might Just Lead to a 'Mind-Blowing' Neolithic Shipwreck

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/divers-found-cargo-might-just-140000061.html

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Tim Newcomb
Thu, December 7, 2023 at 8:00 AM CST·3 min read

Obsidian was the gold of the Stone Age. So, when a series of obsidian blocks have been located off the coast of Capri, authorities began saying that the “worked obsidian cores” could have been the precious cargo a Neolithic shipwreck.

“Finding a Neolithic wreck would be mind-blowing,” Sean Kingsley, Wreckwatch magazine editor, told Newsweek. “If any extensive cargo and crew’s belongings survive, the discovery would become one of the top five underwater strikes of all time. For now, the jury is out, however.”

The jury may be out, but the search is on. In a translated statement from the Superintendent of Archeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the Naples Metropolitan Area (SABAP), the group announces plans to continue extensive instrumental surveying of the seabed in order to verify the possible presence of a hull or other cargo material.

sbip

Found 100 to 130 feet below the water, SABAP said they were “recovering what must have been part of the cargo of a Neolithic-era ship.” The first piece uncovered was a massive, 17-pound piece of the valuable material. On it and other pieces, SABAP pointed to the clear traces of chiseling and processing on the surface of the “worked obsidian cores” to show the piece was in transport as part of some sort of Neolithic ship.