This Ocean Road Still Leads Somewhere. But Where?

Bright Side

Deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea, archaeologists just uncovered something unbelievable — a 7,000-year-old stone road perfectly preserved under the waves. 🌊 This ancient pathway once connected a long-lost settlement to the mainland, and its discovery is rewriting what we thought we knew about early civilizations. In this video, we’ll dive into how researchers found it, who built it, and what secrets still lie buried underwater. The craftsmanship is so advanced, it feels like the people who lived there were centuries ahead of their time. And if a road survived this long beneath the sea, what else could be hiding down there? Let’s explore the ancient world that’s slowly rising from the depths. 🏺✨  Credit: https://www.sciencealert.com/road-built-7000-years-ago-found-at-the-bottom-of-the-mediterranean-sea CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0: Tvrdalj Petra Hektorovića: By Samuli Lintula, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4650775 CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/: Stari Grad Starogradsko polje: By Svefnleysi, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29724561 Fishpond in Tvrdalj: By F.G., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20986295 CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0: Grapčeva cave 20220727 03: By Argo Navis, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121226234 Stari Grad Plain: By Carsten Steger, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=168290586 Kip P.Hektorovic starigrad hvar: By Chippewa, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3229147 St. Stephen's Cathedral: By Bernard Gagnon, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89220059 Hvar 04: By Bernard Gagnon, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89220083 CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0: Korčula Old Town: By Quintin Soloviev, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154701932 Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00Off the coast of Croatia, archaeologists have recently uncovered something incredible.

00:05A perfectly built stone road, still intact, buried under layers and layers of mud.

00:11It's almost 7,000 years old.

00:14Who built it? Why? And where does it lead?

00:19This road might have been lost forever, if not for sheer luck.

00:23Back in 2021, archaeologists were looking at satellite images of the island of Korčula,

00:29a little Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea.

00:33Suddenly, they noticed some strange shapes, odd patterns, half seen beneath the waters.

00:39Curious, they dove into the waters to check it out.

00:42That's when they uncovered something incredible, a sunken Neolithic settlement, the village of Solin.

00:48But the ancient village was just the beginning.

00:51In 2023, while exploring the site further, archaeologists found something even more breathtaking.

00:57A perfectly built stone road, still intact, buried under layers of sea mud.

01:03It was thousands of years old.

01:06The road is only 13 feet wide.

01:09It's laid carefully, stone by stone.

01:12A ghost of a forgotten world, stretching across the seabed.

01:16This was no accident of nature.

01:18The stones were too precisely shaped, too deliberately placed.

01:22And somehow, across 7,000 years of storms and tides, both the village and the road survived.

01:30One of the scientists said it's a miracle.

01:32The islands around Korčula shielded the coast from massive waves.

01:37This spared them both from destruction.

01:40They also found something else.

01:42Ceramic fragments and flint knives.

01:44Small whispers of the people who lived here in the past.

01:47But who were they?

01:50The mysterious road goes way back into the Stone Age.

01:54An ancient culture called Havar culture lived on the Havar Island nearby.

01:59But they also spread across the eastern Adriatic coast and built the village of Solin just offshore from the coast of Korčula Island.

02:08The road connected the village to the main island.

02:11If you set foot on Havar Island today, you'd see a fascinating island of pine forests, lavender fields, and sunlight that spills across vineyards.

02:21But you'd also be stepping into a living mosaic woven from 7,000 years of history.

02:28Neolithic people lived there around 4,900 BCE.

02:32That was before the rise of cities.

02:34Before the pyramids of Egypt.

02:36Before history even had their first kings.

02:39These people found shelter in the island's caves.

02:43In local places like Grapcheva Cave and Markova Cave, they crafted delicate painted pottery.

02:49Some of the oldest in Europe.

02:52This ancient settlement once bustled with life.

02:55Perched near beaches where now only waves rolled.

02:58The people who built it walked barefoot over its stones.

03:01Carrying baskets of grain, tools, and clay pots filled with water or olive oil.

03:07Among those little shards, archaeologists discovered something amazing.

03:13The oldest depiction of a boat in all of Europe.

03:16Even in 3,500 BCE, the people of Havar were dreaming of journeys beyond the horizon.

03:24And even though the Neolithic farmers of Havar culture didn't have great technology, they had already learned to tame the earth.

03:30They built megalithic stone tombs, raised circles of rock in nearby Gradina Bay, and crafted intricate flint blades and stone axes.

03:42Why are Selene Village and the road underwater now?

03:46We don't know for sure.

03:47Perhaps something happened to them in the past that caused this.

03:50In any case, the road and Selene are all we have remained from those days.

03:55Havar Island was always a fascinating place to live in.

03:59The island's history is rough and beautiful, carved by rebellions, pirates, and foreign kings.

04:06Around 385 BCE, the Greeks sailed across the sea and found this beautiful island.

04:13A high limestone ridge, hidden freshwater springs, and fertile plains kissed by the sea breeze.

04:19No wonder they decided to settle here.

04:23These Greeks themselves came from Paros, a sunny island in the Aegean Sea.

04:28When they got to Havar Island, they found a town they called Pharos.

04:32They weren't being super original.

04:35Now we know this town as Starigrad, which means old town, and it actually is one of the oldest towns in all of Europe.

04:43They brought with themselves deep knowledge of farming, sailing, and city building.

04:47This helped them to do something extraordinary.

04:51They divided the land into perfect geometric squares, neat fields for vineyards, olives, and grains.

04:59This perfect patchwork of farms is now called the Starigrad Plain,

05:03and it's still so pure and unchanged after more than 2,000 years that it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

05:12Later came the Romans.

05:13Their villas and roads now also threaded across the hillsides.

05:18Then came the Croats.

05:19Their traditions, from religious processions to the haunting ancient songs of Holy Week, have survived the passing of centuries.

05:28But it was under the Venetians, which was about the 15th century, that Havar truly blossomed.

05:34When the Venetians came there, they chose Havar Town as a major port.

05:38They built fortresses and arsenals, cathedrals, theaters, and squares.

05:45It was the golden age of Renaissance, and Havar brought three genius giants of Croatian culture to the world.

05:51The first one was Pitar Hektorovic.

05:54He captured the life of fishermen and the spirit of the sea in his epic fishing and fishermen's talk.

06:00In a local castle, the Tverdalš Castle, his stone villa still guards its secret fishpond.

06:08The second one was Hannibal Lukic, who wrote The Slave Girl, the first secular drama in Croatian culture.

06:14And finally, Martin Benetovic, a painter, musician, and playwright who left his mark on the island's soul.

06:23In the Franciscan monastery by the sea, there's a beautiful painting stretching across an entire wall.

06:29The Last Supper.

06:31Not the original by da Vinci.

06:33This one is thought to be created by Matteo Ngole.

06:37Same theme, but a different artist.

06:39Though this work is considered a Renaissance masterpiece.

06:42Back then, Havar Island became a jewel of the Venetian Empire, a naval stronghold, and later, a stage for Renaissance poets.

06:53But this place wasn't always peaceful.

06:55In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire came here.

06:59Their corsair raiders swept across the sea and wanted to conquer the island.

07:04Havar's people built fortresses that still cling defiantly to the cliffs, even to this day.

07:09Napoleon also came here.

07:12But even all this couldn't drown Havar's spirit.

07:15Life always returned to the fields.

07:17Lavender bloomed purple over the terraces.

07:20Rosemary and olive trees tangled the hillsides.

07:23And wine flowed from vineyards that the Greeks once planted.

07:27And still, the culture lived.

07:29In the 17th century, the island founded something unheard of.

07:34The first ever public theater in Europe.

07:37Before, theaters were meant for kings and nobles alone.

07:41But this one was a place where commoners and nobles sat together beneath carved stone arches, watching plays lit by candlelight.

07:49The locals also founded the first ever professional European tourist association.

07:54Tourism began early, with the formation of the Hygienic Society of Havar in the 19th century.

08:02Today, Havar is known as the Island of Lavender, and is crowned the Queen of the Dalmatian Islands.

08:09In the Square of St. Stephen, the Cathedral of St. Stephen rises.

08:13Its bell tower, also built back in the Renaissance, once warned of Ottoman raiders.

08:18In the Benedictine nunnery, unseen by any but a few, the sisters weave agave lace.

08:26The threads are pulled from the agave fibers, knotted into impossibly delicate patterns, each one unique.

08:32Each one a prayer captured in cloth.

08:36High above the town, you can still see the ancient cannons aimed out to sea.

08:40And below them, the glittering sweep of the Pakleni Islands, looking like little emeralds.

08:46There's more sunlight in a year than almost anywhere else in Europe.

08:50And the rich history in every festival, in the beauty of the Holy Week processions,

08:55and in the old songs that drift on the sea breeze.

09:00That's it for today.

09:01So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

09:06Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.

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