Archaeologists recently plunged into the Mediterranean Sea to investigate a shipwreck site that dates back over 2,000 years.
The expedition to the Antikythera shipwreck, which is located in the Aegean Sea off of Greece, was announced in a press release published by the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece (ESAG) on Monday.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, University of Geneva professor Lorenz E. Baumer said that the Antikythera shipwreck site is “without any doubt, a unique shipwreck from antiquity.”
The historian explained that the ship sank between 80 and 60 B.C., and described the vessel as “the richest [ancient trade ship] that has ever been discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
“It came from the Eastern Mediterranean and had been heading most probably to Rome,” he said. “We can learn out of it a lot about market and sea cargos during the 1st century BC.”
The professor also noted that a second shipwreck was discovered around 650 feet away, and archaeologists are determining if the vessels were traveling together. In the statement, ESAG officials said divers found “hidden treasures” in the form of roughly 300 objects, which included fragments of marble statues.
“They have yielded a wealth of archaeological material: about 300 objects, including 21 marble fragments, numerous fragments, and other structural elements of the ship’s hull and more than 200 ceramic shards,” the statement explained. “The marble fragments discovered suggest the presence of several statues, while analysis of the amphorae revealed an abundance of varied types, including amphorae from Chios and Rhodes.”
The shipwreck site was originally found in 1900, and numerous marble statues have been recovered since then. At the beginning of the 20th century, a diver named Elias Stadiatis found marble statues at the bottom of the wreck and was visibly shaken by the sight, stammering about seeing a “heap of dead naked people.”
The shipwreck is famous for the Antikythera mechanism, a mechanical calculator that was retrieved from the site in 1901. The Antikythera mechanism is one of the oldest computation devices in the world.
Baumer told Fox News Digital that most researchers have focused on the ship’s artifacts, while his team is trying to “understand the shipwreck and the wreckage as a whole.”
“With the wooden parts that we found, we hope to find out when exactly and maybe also where it has been built,” Baumer said. “It is located at a depth between 45 to 70 meters below sea level, which helped to preserve it.”
He also added that his team employed professional divers and underwater drones to better understand the shipwreck.
“Until this year, very little of the ship itself has been known, mostly from some planks that the famous underwater researcher has retrieved,” he added. “This year, we have found for the first time a small, but structural part of the hull that is delivering important information about the construction of the ship, and that is most probably laying on its original position.”
“If that will be confirmed, we can learn a lot about the position of the wreck on the sea ground, and about its dimensions, and state of preservation, so the research is opening new questions to be investigated.”
