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'Monoliths' Found In Utah & Elsewhere (2020-2021)

Cut 'n' paste/Photoshop is so much more useful to get your monolith in the news ... er ... no, but trending on Twitter/Snapchat or whatever, especially during the current UK lock down.
Were I more skilled, I'd create a whole series of "monoliths in strange but recognisable places" photos.

Then again, while I'm in lock down, I've got time on my hands.
:evillaugh:
 
You know a fad is played out when it becomes a project for bored high school students ...
High School Students Share Responsibility for Mystery Monolith in Fort Worth

High school students share responsibility for a monolith that appeared on the Trinity Trail in Fort Worth this week.

Its straight sides appeared similar to one discovered in the Utah desert, one in California and another in Romania at the end of 2020. ...

"People associate them with aliens, and hey, Jim Bob got bored in the backyard and decided to build something out of the scrap metal he's got," John Black said. "We had a blast with this."

Black owns a shop called Backwoods AutMoto in Millsap. It's where he said he worked with Millsap High School students over the last four weeks to build the monolith, which is 8 feet tall. ...

"When I first heard the word 'monolith' I didn't know what it was, so I looked it up," Kiaa Black said.

"I just think it's pretty cool," Kore Black said.

"I just think people like to experience it," fellow student Matthew Iiams added.

The group dropped off their 250-pound creation on Saturday in Fort Worth near Interstate 30 and Beach Street on the Trinity Trail. It's already gaining attention on social media. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/weird/mystery-monolith-found-in-fort-worth/2526032/
 
Yeah, seems to have run it's course.

Regardless of being a bored student though, don't own up to it. The mystery element is what made it interesting, otherwise it's just a box some bloke put up.

The Banksy effect.
 
According to the FT article, eighty-seven (!) of these monoliths have now been found, or that was the total at time of publication. Has this craze died out yet? Haven't seen much in the past few days.
 
Yeah, seems to have run it's course.

Regardless of being a bored student though, don't own up to it. The mystery element is what made it interesting, otherwise it's just a box some bloke put up.

The Banksy effect.
And as B3TA would label it, 'glass cock' .. a term created by members of that site to describe people still posting that picture of that sports woman kissing that glass trophy that amusingly looks like a penis again and again and again .. used to describe further trending internet phenomena that new posters hadn't/haven't bothered to research whether or not it's old news. See also 'Perspex phallus', 'a penis of the glassiest kind' etc etc ... repost this image at your own risk. It's older than your Mum's pubes.

aglasscock.jpg
 
This article from Daily Sabah (Turkey) provides some more details about this monolith find.
Mystery monolith appears at world’s oldest temple in Turkey

A 3-meter-tall (9.8-foot-tall) metal slab, resembling mysterious monoliths that have been popping up in several locations around the world, has now appeared near Göbeklitepe, home to the world’s oldest temple site, in Turkey's southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.

Security forces rushed to the area on Friday when locals in a nearby village alerted them to the monolith, which is much smaller than its counterparts found abroad. Gendarmerie troops cordoned off the area, an empty lot, and brought in experts from the local culture and tourism authorities. Experts said the inscription on the slab, which was only 45 centimeters (17.7 inches) wide, was in the ancient Göktürk alphabet and meant “Look at the sky if you want to see the Moon.”

An investigation is underway to find out who installed the metal slab in the middle of the empty land.

The monolith craze began in November 2020 when the first monolith, which was strikingly similar to the one in the sci-fi classic “2001: A Space Odyssey,” appeared in a desert in the U.S. state of Utah. Similar objects turned up in unlikely places, from Romania to Canada. Theories about who made and installed mysterious monoliths often point to extraterrestrial beings, but more often than not, the monoliths have been found to be the work of local artists paying tribute to the sci-fi film. The origin of other monoliths remains unknown while rumors on social media claim they might be part of a marketing campaign for a show on a streaming service.

SOURCE: https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/mystery-monolith-appears-at-worlds-oldest-temple-in-turkey/news
 
I found this interesting, even if it's merely a coincidence ...

The Daily Sabah article makes a point to link the new Turkish monolith to the "world's oldest temple" (i.e., Gobekli Tepe).

Only 3 weeks prior to this latsst monolith's discovery Israeli archaeologist Gideon Avni published an essay in Haaretz musing on the current monolith fad and its possible connections to a number of megalithic sites, of which Gobekli Tepe was the oldest mentioned.
The Utah Monolith Has an Ancient History
Gideon Avni
Haaretz
Published on 14.01.2021

Lately we were apprised of an odd phenomenon that occurred almost simultaneously in a number of places: the mysterious appearance of shiny metal pillars, monolithic in appearance (from the Greek: mono, “one”; and lithos, “stone”). These monument-like structures were placed in remote locations, difficult to access, in different corners of the globe.

The story begins in the United States. ...

This odd story went viral in the world media. The mysterious circumstances of the appearance and disappearance of the large metal pillar fired people’s imagination. What could it signify? ...


Indeed, when this phenomenon is examined from the perspective of archaeologists, the feeling is that “we’ve been here before.” The work of megalithic cultures, so called because they used huge stones to craft impressive sites, existed in various places and forms in the ancient world: from vast monuments in Europe, including Stonehenge in southern England, to graves on which were placed immense stones in the shape of a table, known as dolmens, and large standing stones across the Eurasian Steppe that reflect the spiritual world of the steppe peoples. ...

Monoliths – huge stone monuments that were generally placed across the deserts and plains, below towering mountains or on summits with commanding views – were a widespread phenomenon in the ancient world ... The questions the scholars ask focus on two areas: How did the ancients acquire the engineering knowledge necessary to quarry and transport prodigious stones weighing tens of tons? And how did these megalithic cultures spread in the world – as an invention in one place and the subsequent transmission of know-how to distant parts, or as a parallel human response in places distant from one another? ...

One of the amazing sites that changed the view of scholars about the pace of development of human technology, is Gobekli Tepe ...

The site was dated to about 11,500 years ago (Pre-Pottery Neolithic period). This was one of the most significant periods in the history of human development, when the process began of the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to societies based on agriculture. The massive stone pillars decorated with human and animal figures found at Gobekli Tepe raise questions about the extraordinary technological capabilities of the population, which enabled them to quarry and emplace the huge works, together with the question of the religious motive and idea that underlie the structures. Possible interpretations include a wish to satisfy the desires of the gods, or to create a ritual framework for a successful hunt. ...

What stands out in a global, multiple-era view of these monuments is the existence of the same conceptual underpinning in different parts of the world. There is no likelihood that the sites are the physical expression of an idea that emerged from one specific place and spread across the globe, among cultures between which there was no connection. ...

In light of this interpretation, the appearance of modern monoliths in different places can be likened to the ancient megaliths. The concept is apparently similar, stemming from the human desire to give expression to the spiritual world of the individual and the community by physical means. The obvious difference has to do with modern communication networks that transmit information across the globe in seconds. ...

Gideon Avni is the chief archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority and a professor of archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

FULL STORY: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology...tah-monolith-has-an-ancient-history-1.9451240
 
Not sure why they state it is 'much smaller' than the one found else where, sounds pretty much the same size

That bit confused me, too. The 3 m height is on a par with almost all the other recent 'monolith' installations. The Daily Sabah article doesn't specifically claim this one is relatively short. However, it does state, "... the inscription on the slab, which was only 45 centimeters (17.7 inches) wide ..." - thus clearly implying this monolith's width (if not its height) is notably small.

Dimensions were not usually cited for the earlier installations, but a width of 17.7 in. / 45 cm doesn't seem all that different from what I imagined based on the earlier ones' photos.

Based on the Daily Sabah photo this monolith looks broader - not thinner - than the others. A rough inspection of the image suggests to me that if it's circa 17.7 in. wide then something like half its 9.8 ft. length is buried below the surface. If I'm right about this, the visible height of this installation would only be on the order of 4.9 ft., and that would definitely be atypical.
 
That bit confused me, too. The 3 m height is on a par with almost all the other recent 'monolith' installations. The Daily Sabah article doesn't specifically claim this one is relatively short. However, it does state, "... the inscription on the slab, which was only 45 centimeters (17.7 inches) wide ..." - thus clearly implying this monolith's width (if not its height) is notably small.

Dimensions were not usually cited for the earlier installations, but a width of 17.7 in. / 45 cm doesn't seem all that different from what I imagined based on the earlier ones' photos.

Based on the Daily Sabah photo this monolith looks broader - not thinner - than the others. A rough inspection of the image suggests to me that if it's circa 17.7 in. wide then something like half its 9.8 ft. length is buried below the surface. If I'm right about this, the visible height of this installation would only be on the order of 4.9 ft., and that would definitely be atypical.
In the video it shows an adult standing reletively close to it, it definately looks broader and a bit shorter, maybe 7-9 foot depending on the persons height
 
The Associated Press is reporting that the Turkish (latest) 'monolith' was a publicity gimmick related to Turkey's newly-announced space program.
Mystery metal monolith turns out to be Turkish govt gimmick

A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared and disappeared on a field in southeast Turkey turned out to be a publicity gimmick before a government event Tuesday during which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a space program for the country.

The three-meter-high (about 10-foot-high) metal slab bearing an ancient Turkic script, was found Friday by a farmer in Sanliurfa province. It was discovered near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gobekli Tepe, which is home to megalithic structures dating to the 10th millennium B.C., thousands of years before Stonehenge. ...

However, the shiny structure that bore the inscription “Look at the sky, you will see the moon” in the ancient Turkic Gokturk alphabet, was reported gone Tuesday morning, adding to the mystery.

An image of the monolith was later projected on a screen as Erdogan presented Turkey’s space program during a televised event.

“I now present to you Turkey’s 10-year vision, strategy and aims and I say: ‘look at the sky, you will see the moon,’” Erdogan said. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-turkey-45f6deac10ee91ed03d30883286cb9ad
 
They may not all be Turkish government gimmicks, but gimmicks they certainly are. It's no fun when the parents show up and try to join in.
 
<<A metal structure that mysteriously appeared on a roundabout in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been destroyed over fears about its origins.
People in the capital, Kinshasa, stoned and torched the 12ft (3.7m) triangular prism that looked like other metal monoliths that have cropped up around the world over the last few months.
It had begun to draw selfie-takers, which fuelled rumours on social media.
Some feared it was satanic or put there by aliens or by a secret cabal.>>

The BBC article goes on to reference the Freemasons and the Illuminati.
 
They don't mess about in Kinshasa! I wonder if the monolith erectors are Banksy fans?
 
A secret cabal of satanic aliens, no doubt! Kill it with fire!
 
I wonder if it's a lone monolith, or if there will be another one found? Or two, or more?
So how many has it been so far?

I keep trying to think of a more appropriate word than "monolith." Plinth doesn't work, neither does stele. Damnable thread, it haunts me.
 
So how many has it been so far?

I keep trying to think of a more appropriate word than "monolith." Plinth doesn't work, neither does stele. Damnable thread, it haunts me.
Monolith mania is showing no signs of abating as the strange sculptures continue to appeararound the world. There have been as many as 200 reports of them to date, including recent examples in Turkey and the Democratic Republic of Congo.22 Feb 2021

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/new-monolith-still-appearing-1945207

I think 'metal slab' or 'metal polyhedron' would be better names :)
 
... I keep trying to think of a more appropriate word than "monolith." Plinth doesn't work, neither does stele. ...

Given the lack of ornamentation or inscription, 'stele / stela' isn't a good fit.

The most appropriate term for such an unadorned vertical monument would probably be 'column' or 'pillar'.
 
Is it all the work of those people who used to have too much time on their hands so would while away their days (or nights) by making crop circles? Maybe now that everyone just shrugs and says "another crop circle? Meh" have they perhaps found a new way to alleviate their boredom by putting up these monolithy thingies (technical terms folks) to confuse the bejesus out of us?
 
Is it all the work of those people who used to have too much time on their hands so would while away their days (or nights) by making crop circles? Maybe now that everyone just shrugs and says "another crop circle? Meh" have they perhaps found a new way to alleviate their boredom by putting up these monolithy thingies (technical terms folks) to confuse the bejesus out of us?

Erecting a pre-constructed pillar requires much less time in the field (and risk of detection) than creating a crop circle.
 
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