Massive submerged structure stumps Israeli archaeologis

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/23/massive-submerged-structure-stumps-israeli-archaeologists/


Massive submerged structure stumps Israeli archaeologists

Digging History

Published May 23, 2013

Associated Press

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The circular structure was first detected in a sonar survey of part of the sea in the summer of 2003.Shmuel Marco

Putting all the data together researchers found that the structure is cone shaped, about 230 feet in diameter and nearly 32 feet tall. It weighs an estimated 60,000 tons.Shmuel Marco
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A boat is by the jetty of the Capernaum National Park in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.AP

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The massive circular structure appears to be an archaeologist's dream: a recently discovered antiquity that could reveal secrets of ancient life in the Middle East and is just waiting to be excavated.

It's thousands of years old -- a conical, manmade behemoth weighing hundreds of tons, practically begging to be explored.

The problem is -- it's at the bottom of the biblical Sea of Galilee. For now, at least, Israeli researchers are left stranded on dry land, wondering what finds lurk below.

'The bottom line is we don't know when it's from, we don't know what it's connected to, we don't know its function.'

- Dani Nadel, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa

The monumental structure, made of boulders and stones with a diameter of 230 feet, emerged from a routine sonar scan in 2003. Now archaeologists are trying to raise money to allow them access to the submerged stones.

"It's very enigmatic, it's very interesting, but the bottom line is we don't know when it's from, we don't know what it's connected to, we don't know its function," said Dani Nadel, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa who is one of several researchers studying the discovery. "We only know it is there, it is huge and it is unusual."