Orichalcum

Orichalcum is a metal which belongs to the ancient Greeks. It was said by Plato, that the ore covered the temples of Atlantis, casting a red glow over the city. They valued it almost as much as they valued gold. What it is exactly is a mystery, though it is believed to be a brass alloy of some type that the Greeks hobbled together (copper, charcoal and zinc) and not (and Plato claimed), mined. All this from the folks over at Discovery News. Despite this, we have never had a sample of the ore.

Until now.

It seems that researchers have pulled 39 ingots of the ore from a ship wreck of the coast of Sicily. The ship sank not far from shore some 2600 years ago, probably destroyed by Poseidon in his rage over the loss of Atlantis, or maybe these were refugees from the dying city. Maybe they were just merchants carrying the stuff to market and foundered. Who can say (though I'm going with the Poseidon angle)?

Regardless, check the story out linked above, its pretty cool.