Divers have just uncovered the world\u2019s oldest shipwreck.<\/p>\n
A piece of obsidian was found off the coast of Naples.<\/p>\n
The ancient volcanic rock gives us huge insight into the past.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Young friends convert shipwreck in middle of ocean into cozy lounge with gaming console<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Obsidian is not just the name of a stylish paint finish<\/a>.<\/p>\n The dense, black volcanic glass was treasured in ancient times for making tools.<\/p>\n When fractured, the glass is incredibly sharp, ideal for knives, arrows and spears.<\/p>\n The piece found is the size of a large book and weighs 17.6 pounds.<\/p>\n <\/a>SABAP Naples Metropolitan<\/a>SABAP Naples Metropolitan<\/p>\n It might not seem like a big deal to find a piece of naturally occurring glass in the sea, but it has some exciting implications.<\/p>\n We have evidence that people used to travel by boat in the Neolithic period, which took place between 12,000 and 2,000 BC.<\/p>\n But such evidence is rare, as any wrecks from the wooden ships of the era would have eroded long ago.<\/p>\n As a piece of obsidian is unlikely to be found naturally in this area, we can assume it was being transported by boat.<\/p>\n So these divers<\/a> have essentially discovered the oldest known shipwreck on Earth.<\/p>\n The artefact has markings on it, clearly showing that humans interacted with it.<\/p>\n Customers would have paid to chip off pieces from the obsidian, choosing a size to suit whatever they needed it for.<\/p>\n Thin pieces would be used for drilling while flat, sharp pieces were for skinning animals or making weapons<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a>SABAP Naples Metropolitan<\/a>SABAP Naples Metropolitan<\/p>\n Now, the divers will continue to scour the area for more evidence of a Neolithic shipwreck.<\/p>\n If found, it will be the first of its kind.<\/p>\n \u201cThe remains of a Neolithic hull in Mediterranean waters have never been found to date,\u201d Mariano Nuzzo, a representative for the Naples metropolitan area said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cIt would truly be a very rare event, indeed unique.\u201d<\/p>\n The obsidian was found close to Blue Grotto, a sea cave that the Roman<\/a> emperor Tiberius used to use as a private bathing pool.<\/p>\n But to keep looters at bay, the exact location is being kept a secret.<\/p>\n\n The post 8,000-year-old relic found at bottom of ocean could lead to \u2018mind-blowing\u2019 discovery<\/a> appeared first on Supercar Blondie<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Divers have just uncovered the world\u2019s oldest shipwreck. A piece of obsidian was found off the coast of Naples. The ancient volcanic rock gives us huge insight into the past. READ MORE: Young friends convert shipwreck in middle of ocean into cozy lounge with gaming console Obsidian is not just the name of a stylish …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":42925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}