Antikythera from the 1st century BC. Chr: New insights into millennial shipwrecks

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According to the ESAG (Ecole Suisse d’Archéologie en Grèce/Swiss Archaeological School in Greece) website, excavations focused on the area at the eastern end of the submerged area, where fragments of monumental-sized marble statues were found after a group of large boulders were removed last year.

This time, the team discovered the bone remains of at least one more person who was a tragic victim of the devastating shipwreck. Artifacts unique to the Antikythera shipwreck were also unearthed, including pieces of marble statues, pottery, glassware, and parts of ship structure made of copper alloys, lead, and wood.

One of the newly found pieces of marble was said to most likely belong to the beard of Heracles, which was previously discovered by the 2022 expedition. These finds confirmed the cultural and artistic significance of the Antikythera shipwreck.

The richest ancient shipwreck in Greece

In addition, according to ESAG, an important discovery was made in a higher layer of the stratigraphy: Several Late Antique pottery fragments were unearthed, suggesting that another possibly much smaller vessel suffered the same tragic fate during the Proto-Byzantine period.

The 1st century BC wreck of Antikythera is the richest ancient shipwreck ever discovered in Greece. It was discovered in 1900 by sponge divers off the island of Antikythera.

The merchant ship was from Greece and was en route to Italy when it sank. In this very famous shipwreck, the famous «Antikythera Mechanism», the oldest known astronomical calculator, was found in 1902.

With dozens of multistage bronze gears, this machine described the movements of the sun, moon and planets visible to the naked eye, and even made it possible to predict solar eclipses.

3D modeling software is used

The progress of the excavations was meticulously documented using remote-controlled drones and digitally recorded by divers. According to ESAG, this data was processed daily using 3D modeling software, which enables visualization and analysis of the excavation site with great accuracy.

Since 2021 the project is coordinated by the University of Geneva under the auspices of ESAG at the University of Lausanne. The project, which was planned to last until 2025, aimed to better understand the ship’s route, cargo and the current state of the wreck. (SDA)

Source : Blick