Another great mystery!

Who doesn't like an enigma, an unknown site that just begs to be figured out? Though half the fun is never really knowing.

Lying between Syria and Saudi Arabia are the remains of thousands of ancient geoglyphs. Aerial photography and satellite mapping over Jordan has unearthed truly fascinating designs across desert plains. While there is a variety of size (25m to 70m diameter) and design, the core repeated motif is that of a circle with internal radiating spokes.

Dating is problematic for such sites, but is is believed that that are at least 2,000 years old. Comparisons have been made to the famous Nazca lines, but those of Jordan are more ancient and more numerous.

These circles or wheels are thought to be part of a larger stone landscape which includes kites (for funneling animals), pendants (lines of cairns that run from burials) and other structures. The practicalities of such structures are not always immediately obvious.

Without excavated data on the sites, it is difficult to determine exact details of age and function.

Comment:
While I haven't studied these at all, it seems possible that they could have been settlement sites (maybe temporary ones). I also believe that the comparison with the Nazca lines is not very helpful, if anything, it somewhat impedes independent analysis. But that's journalism for you, it sounds juicer if they can link it to a more famous site.

For more resources from the researches, click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apaame
For more images, click here: http://www.livescience.com/16045-aerial-photos-mysterious-stone-structures.html
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/15/scitech/main20106680.shtml

Mystery object found on the ocean floor between Sweden and Finland

No one has any idea what this 'floundering object' is 285 feet down Botnia Gulf.


Peter Lindberg, commander of Ocean Explorer, and his team of experienced salvage hunters haven't a clue either.


Find out more, including a detailed image, here. Let's figure this one people!

And NO, Giorgio, it's not bloody aliens

Lost city of Atlantis - new claims!

A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.

While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.

"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."

Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious "cities" in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune) / Source