text: GELA. La Soprintendenza del Mare riporta alla luce 39 lingotti di Oricalco: risalgono a 2600 anni fa. Per Platone era il misterioso metallo di Atlantide. Un tesoro ripescato nel litorale di contrada “Bulala” nel mare di Gela, in una zona che in passato ha restituito i resti di ben tre navi arcaiche. All’interno di un relitto databile alla prima metà del VI secolo a. C., 39 lingotti di un materiale nobile, l’Oricalco, simile al moderno ottone, noto nell’antichità come metallo prezioso, tanto da essere considerato al terzo posto per valore commerciale, dopo oro e argento. Secondo le analisi effettuate con “fluorescenza a raggi X” da Dario Panetta della TQ (Thecnology for Quality) con sede a Genova, ciascun esemplare è frutto di una lega di metalli composta per l’80% di rame e per il 20% di zinco e realizzata con tecniche avanzate, la cui lavorazione, i coloni geloti di origine rodio-cretese avevano appreso molto probabilmente dai Fenici. Platone parla dell’Oricalco come di un metallo misterioso presente in Atlantide e di elevato valore «a quel tempo il più prezioso dopo l’oro» e che le mura che comprendevano la cittadella ove insisteva il tempio di Poseidone a Clito «risplendevano con la rossa luce dell’Oricalco». Infine che “L’Oricalco, quel metallo che ormai si sente solo nominare, allora era più che un nome, ed era estratto dalla terra in molti luoghi dell’isola”. 
   
   I primi ad individuare i preziosi reperti nel mare di Gela sono stati i volontari dell’associazione ambientalista «Mare Nostrum» diretta da Francesco Cassarino. Il recupero è avvenuto con una squadra di sommozzatori della Capitaneria di Porto, della Guardia di finanza e della Soprintendenza del Mare. 
   
   I lingotti di Oricalco erano in arrivo a Gela, provenienti verosimilmente dalla Grecia o dall’Asia Minore, quando la nave che li trasportava affondò forse per il maltempo. Il rinvenimento dimostra la ricchezza di Gela in epoca arcaica, circa 100 anni dopo la sua fondazione del 689 a.C. ad opera di Antifemo e Eutimo, nonché la presenza di ricche e specializzate officine artigianali per la produzione di oggetti di grande valore estetico. La presenza di Oricalco a Gela potrebbe connettersi con l’origine rodia della città. Non è trascurabile il fatto che gli antichi Greci indicavano in Cadmo (figura mitologica greco-fenicia) l’inventore del prezioso metallo. I 39 lingotti pregiati sarebbero stati destinati a un artigianato locale di alta qualità, per decorazioni di particolare pregio. 
   
   “Il rinvenimento di lingotti di Oricalco nel mare di Gela apre prospettive di grande rilievo per la ricerca e lo studio delle antiche rotte di approvvigionamento di metalli nell’antichità mediterranea. Finora nulla del genere era stato rinvenuto nè a terra nè a mare. Si conosceva l’Oricalco attraverso notizie testuali e pochi oggetti ornamentali. Inoltre si conferma la grande ricchezza e capacità produttiva artigianale della città di Gela in epoca arcaica come area di consumo di oggetti di pregio. L’Oricalco era, infatti, per gli antichi un metallo prezioso la cui invenzione produttiva attribuivano a Cadmo. Si pone come ora necessario lo scavo del relitto cui appartengono i lingotti poiché è certo che si tratta di un carico di grande importanza storico-commerciale per aggiornare la più antica storia economica della Sicilia." - ha affermato il Soprintendente del Mare, Sebastiano Tusa. 
   
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   A team of divers recovered nearly 40 ingots off the sea floor near Siciliy, from a ship that was lost in the sixth century. 
   
   Gleaming cast metal called orichalcum, which was said by Ancient Greeks to be found in Atlantis, has been recovered from a ship that sunk 2,600 years ago off the coast of Sicily. 
   
   The lumps of metal were arriving to Gela in southern Sicily, possibly coming from Greece or Asia Minor. The ship that was carrying them was likely caught in a storm and sunk just when it was about to enter the port. 
   
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   "The wreck dates to the first half of the sixth century," Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily's superintendent of the Sea Office, told Discovery News. "It was found about 1,000 feet from Gela's coast at a depth of 10 feet." 
   
   He noted that the 39 ingots found on the sandy sea floor represent a unique finding. 
   
   "Nothing similar has ever been found," Tusa said. "We knew orichalcum from ancient texts and a few ornamental objects." 
   
   Indeed orichalcum has long been considered a mysterious metal, its composition and origin widely debated. 
   
   According to the ancient Greeks, it was invented by Cadmus, a Greek-Phoenician mythological character. The fourth century B.C. Greek philosopher Plato made orichalcum a legendary metal when he mentioned it in the Critias dialogue. 
   
   Describing Atlantis as flashing "with the red light of orichalcum," he wrote that the metal, second only in value to gold, was mined in the mythical island and was used to cover Poseidon's temple interior walls, columns and floors. 
   
   Today most scholars agree orichalcum is a brass-like alloy, which was made in antiquity by cementation. This process was achieved with the reaction of zinc ore, charcoal and copper metal in a crucible. 
   
   Analyzed with X-ray fluorescence by Dario Panetta, of TQ - Tecnologies for Quality, the 39 ingots turned to be an alloy made with 75-80 percent copper, 15-20 percent zinc and small percentages of nickel, lead and iron. 
   
   "The finding confirms that about a century after its foundation in 689 B.C., Gela grew to become a wealthy city with artisan workshops specialized in the production of prized artifacts," Tusa said. 
   
   The 39 ingots recovered from the wreck were indeed destined to these workshops and were used in high quality decorations. 
   
   According to Enrico Mattievich, a retired professor of physics who taught at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the ingots are not properly made from orichalcum. 
   
   "It appears they are lumps of latone metal, an alloy of copper, zinc and lead," he told Discovery News. 
   
   Mattievich, who has led a number of studies in physics applied to mineralogy, paleontology and archaeology, is one of the scholars who disagree on the brass-like nature of orichalcum. 
   
   While other scholars equated the mysterious metal to amber and to other copper based alloys, Mattievich believes orichalcum has its roots in the Peruvian Andes and in the Chavín civilization that developed there from 1200 B.C. to 200 B.C. 
   
   According to the scholar, who claimed in his book "Journey to the Mythological Inferno" that the ancient Greeks had discovered America, a metallic alloy "with fire-Iike reflections" similar to Plato's description was found in a set of metallic jaguars of Chavin style, which turned to be made of 9 percent copper, 76 percent gold and 15 percent silver. 
   
   Whatever the origins and nature of orichalcum, Tusa's team plans to excavate the shipwreck and bring to light the entire cargo. 
   
   "It will provide us with precious information on Sicily's most ancient economic history," Tusa said.
target: – It was considered one of the most precious metals in ancient times—and Plato claimed it lined the temple of Poseidon on the legendary island of Atlantis—but this appears to be the first time anybody in modern times has actually found some orichalcum. Researchers in Sicily say a shipwreck from 2,600 years ago, not long before the time of Plato, has yielded 39 ingots of the mysterious metal, Discovery reports. Scholars have long debated the composition of the alloy mentioned in ancient writings, but testing has revealed the Sicily ingots to be a copper-zinc mix with small percentages of nickel, lead, and iron. "Nothing similar has ever been found," says the superintendent of Sicily's Sea Office. "We knew orichalcum from ancient texts and a few ornamental objects." He tells the Giornale di Sicilia that the ingots were apparently bound for workshops in the town of Gela, probably coming from Greece or Asia Minor, when the ship transporting them sank. The find, he says, "opens prospects of great importance to the research and study of ancient routes of supply of metals in the ancient Mediterranean. ... It will provide us with precious information on Sicily's most ancient economic history." (Divers recently found a "holy grail" of shipwrecks.)