In Sevastopol, workers at a limestone quarry in Inkerman discovered bullet-like metal objects in a layer of limestone dating back 70 million years. About the find, which has no explanation yet, "RG" said the head of the enterprise.
According to him, the stone is being mined at a depth of about 100 meters underground. There a block was cut out, inside of which mysterious artifacts were found.
“We cut limestone blocks into pieces for the production of architectural decoration, and today, when we were cutting the block, we saw metal,” says Sergei Chumak, director of Inkerstrom. - This is clearly a man-made product made of metal, processed by man, like an arrowhead or a bullet. Small fragments were also found nearby, presumably made of wood. We carefully removed all this from the block and did not touch it again.
The two objects are shaped like bullets, slightly flattened and curved in a crescent shape. The metal is similar in appearance to copper. It can be seen that they "grew" into limestone and underwent oxidation, and did not get there today as a result of mechanical action.
“The geological age of the limestone is 70-80 million years, hence our surprise,” says the director. - I've been mining limestone for 30 years, and this is the first time I've seen this. During the "dissolution" of blocks, turritella - fossilized mollusks - were often encountered. There were also traces of meteorites, but they look different, like rusty, half-decayed blotches of metal. And the whole metal products were caught for the first time.
The company will ask scientists from the Tauride Chersonesos and the specialized mining institute to determine the origin of the objects found and find out how they got into the limestone layers.
- Even if we assume that these are bullets, it remains a mystery how they could have ended up inside a rock that is more than 70 million years old? - Chumak asks.
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White Inkerman limestone has been known since the times of Chersonesos. The stone was used not only for the construction of the ancient polis, but also sent by sea to Rome, Constantinople. He also went to the construction of many buildings in Sevastopol. In 1944, a mining enterprise was re-established at the Inkerman limestone deposit. First, limestone was cut out in a quarry near the Kalamita fortress and the cave monastery, which was then flooded. Since 1962, the development of a second quarry in the neighborhood began; its depth has now reached 100 meters.
Yulia Krymova