17 Dec 2001 @ 12:31, by Roni Gemma

http://www.msnbc.com/news/668477.asp?cp1=1 Cubans skeptical about sea structures
They say rocks may be natural formations, not a ‘lost city’

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec. 13 — There is no evidence that a recently discovered “spectacular” rock formation on the seabed off Cuba’s western tip was a lost city belonging to an unknown ancient civilization, Cuban specialists said Thursday.


A CANADA-BASED exploration company, Advanced Digital Communications, had indicated that the structures discovered at about 2,100 feet (650 meters) below the ocean surface might be ruins of a submerged urban center from thousands of years ago.
But local specialists warned that it was too early to tell, and said the formation may have a natural explanation.
“There are no convincing signs of the presence of man-made work,” said Gabino La Rosa of the National Anthropological Center, who added that he participated in a summer expedition with Advanced Digital Communications to explore the zone.
“Without doubt, it’s a spectacular find, but it could have a natural, not cultural, explanation. ... Up to now, all we can say is that there are large rock formations ... which show a certain organization and are also evocative of pyramid shapes.”
Advanced Digital Communications said the structure off the Guanahacabibes Peninsula was on a land strip that probably once joined Cuba to Mexico’s Yucatan region before being sunk by volcanic activity.
The company said an underwater robot filmed parts of the 7.7-square-mile (20-square-kilometer) area in July, showing smooth, granitelike blocks laid out in structures resembling pyramids, roads and buildings.

‘NOT SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE’
Advanced Digital Communications’ Soviet-born Canadian ocean engineer, Paulina Zelitsky, who led the summer expedition, said that while the formation looked like a man-made structure from at least 6,000 years ago, further research was needed, and “it would be totally irresponsible to say what it was before we have evidence.” La Rosa, in comments to Cuban state news agency Prensa Latina, shed doubt on the hypothesis of a “lost city.”
“During an investigation, we cannot get carried away by enthusiasm or initial suppositions without proving or rigorously demonstrating our hypotheses,” he said.
Although La Rosa did not explain what could be the natural causes of the stone structures, some other foreign experts hearing about the case said they could be limestone or other geological formations, which have in the past misled explorers in other parts of the world.
Another specialist, Jose Diaz Duque of Cuba’s Science, Technology and Environment Ministry, said it was “hasty” to be talking about a possible sunken city. “There is not sufficient evidence,” he also told Prensa Latina. “The first inhabitants of this region arrived more than 4,000 years ago and, on the evidence found, they could not build streets, ramps or a city. They had an inferior level of development and generally lived in caves.”
He added that when Cuba was thought to be joined to mainland Latin America, millions of years ago, there was no human life on the continent.
Advanced Digital Communications is the deepest operator among four foreign firms working in joint venture with President Fidel Castro’s government to explore Cuban waters containing hundreds of treasure-laden ships from the colonial era.