Homer's Ithaca possible found thanks to new geologic research

TheAllINeed.com

(NC&T/AGI) This hypothesis, fully explained in Geotimes, suggests that the western peninsula of the modern-day Greek island Kefalonia, called Paliki, was a separate island 3,000 years ago. Landslides and rockfalls from earthquakes filled in the valley between Kefalonia and Paliki, thus disguising the ancient landscape that was described by Homer in the Odyssey.

Underhill and colleagues have conducted extensive geological and geophysical studies on the southern end of the isthmus between Kefalonia and Paliki where the team drilled a 122-meter borehole. The team never encountered bedrock but instead bored through unconsolidated rockfall and landside material even below sea level. The absence of bedrock and presence of very young marine fossils in the reworked borehole sediments confirm that rockfalls and landslides could have filled in the ancient sea channel to create the isthmus between the once separate islands. If this hypothesis holds true, Paliki likely matches Homer's description of Ithaca.


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