Location - Tsimlyansk reservoir, Rostov region. The breakdowns of granite boulders and their small fragments lie right on the shore. They are characteristically covered (partially) by a layer of clay deposits. It must be understood that the water washed away part of the clay, exposing the debris under it.
General view of the coast with debris
And here are photos of Sarkel's excavations:
Promotional video:
But back to the find:
The most interesting thing is that in many boulders there are smooth round holes, unambiguously artificial.
A hole in the top of a large stone in the center.
Material - possibly granite, but I do not exclude that it is just dense sandstone.
When I pointed out these holes to people and asked them to speculate about their origin - they said that these are definitely traces of blasting operations - in modern construction.
That is, a hole is drilled, a charge is laid (checker or gunpowder) - an explosion and small fragments are used.
In favor of this assumption, the fact that it really is not far away works - the coast is landscaped with these small debris.
Disadvantages of the version: I understand that the hole must collapse during the explosion. However, we see that they are intact. And also the fact that the boulders were partially covered with clay suggests that nothing was blown up there - during an explosion, all this clay would be scattered for hundreds of meters around. Also, no craters or other characteristic traces of blasting operations are visible.
Rounded boulder. Perhaps it was being rolled with water. Or maybe casting. Its strange upper texture is visible.
The boulder on the right is covered with a layer of clay. Was it done after blasting or something?
Boulders in the water - there are also plenty of them at the bottom. This is a flooded area, a reservoir.
Photomaps of the surroundings:
Google maps of this area:
The line of debris is quite even, as if it was specially poured. But it is definitely not specially poured - you can feel it when you are standing next to it, everything is chaotic, everything is covered with compressed clay. The whole coast is covered with small crumbs
and one more thing: it is there that the same Sarkel fortress is located under the clay, and there is not one fortress there and it is not clear at all whether it is Sarkel or not, and if so, which one. Officially, historians call it the left-bank settlement and the right-bank settlement. One of them is now at the bottom of the reservoir.
The most consistent thing that I see is that the ancient granite objects were destroyed by a strong blow (natural or weapon is not important), and then the mudflow moved them very evenly and covered them - well, or something like that. Otherwise, it is unclear why they lay in such an even strip. What kind of holes is also not clear - whether it is really something modern (they are even and the same) but it is not clear why they were made. There were no explosions - traces would be visible
if these are ancient holes, then it is also not clear why they are and why there are no holes of other diameters.
By the way, the surface texture in the holes is no different from the rest of the stone surface - I don't think they were drilled in the last decades, the holes are clearly very old, some have lost their round shape, there are no drill marks - there are also no radial stripes anywhere.
My comment: This is most likely a quarry. Besides explosions, there is a wedge splitting technology. But it is not necessary to drill through holes for it. If this is for checkers or gunpowder, then there was already at least gunpowder. Another thought arose that they were dismantling the remains of something very ancient.
Thanks to Alexander Anischenko for the provided material.
Author: sibved