Archaeologists have discovered ingots of an unknown metal on a ship that sank off the coast of Sicily. According to researchers, the ship sank about 2,600 years ago, possibly due to a sudden storm. On board the sunken ship, divers found 47 ingots of a mysterious reddish-golden metal, which, according to scientists, may be orichalcum, a metal from the mythical Atlantis.
Also from the ship were raised weapons, an anchor, the remains of amphorae and several small containers used to transport precious oils. Most likely, it was a merchant ship carrying goods, and weapons and armor were used by the ship's crew to defend against pirate attacks. And in general, it would be an ordinary ship, if not for these ingots of metal, which turned out to be an alloy of copper (about 75-80%), zinc (15-20%) and a small amount of impurities.
In color, the alloy resembles the mythical orichalcum, which is mentioned in Plato's work about Atlantis - a sunken island where an extremely developed civilization lived. In the dialogue Critias, Plato writes that the city of the Atlanteans was surrounded by three walls, and the last of them, around the acropolis, was made of orichalcum and "shone with a fiery flicker." Also inside the temple of Poseidon, the supreme deity of the Atlanteans, there was a stele made of orichalcum, and at a price the metal was "second only to gold."
However, judging by the chemical composition, orichalcum may not turn out to be such an exotic alloy as it once seemed in ancient times, and the legends of Atlantis may be confirmed in the near future.
Nika Schultz
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