Antikythera wreck
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The Antikythera wreck is a shipwreck that was discovered by sponge divers off the coast of the Greek island, Antikythera. Its approximate location is 35d 53'23" (35.8897)N and 23d 18'28" (23.3078)E, "20m off Point Glyphadia" (see discussion page for location derivation and this Google satellite view.)
[edit] Discovery and excavation
In October 1900, a team of sponge divers led by Captain Dimitrios Kondos had decided to wait out a severe storm hampering their sail back from Africa on the island of Antikythera, and they began diving for sponges off the island's coastline. Although in years past divers worked naked, by 1900 divers usually wore standard diving dresses — canvas suits and copper helmets — which allowed them to dive deeper and to stay submerged longer.
The first to lay eyes on the shipwreck 60 metres down was Elias Stadiatos, who quickly signalled to be pulled to the surface. He described the scene as a heap of rotting corpses and horses lying on the sea bed. Thinking the diver had gone mad from too much carbon dioxide in his helmet, Kondos himself dove into the water, soon returning with a bronze arm of a statue. Until they could safely leave the island, the divers dislodged as many small artifacts as they could carry.
Together with the Greek Education Ministry and Hellenic Navy, the sponge divers salvaged numerous artifacts from the waters. By the end of 1902, divers had recovered statues of a philosopher's head, a young boy, a discus thrower, the bronze Ephebe of Antikythera of .c 340 BC (now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens), a Hercules, a marble bull and a bronze lyre. Many other small and common artifacts were also found. On May 17, 1902, however, archaeologist Valerios Stais made the most celebrated find. When diving to search the area of the wreck, he noticed that one of the pieces of rock near him had a gear wheel embedded in it. It would soon be identified as the Antikythera mechanism; originally thought to be one of the first forms of a mechanised clock, it is now considered to be the world’s oldest known analog computer.
[edit] Dating the ship
Although the excavation of the 300 ton ship was highly successful, dating the ship was riddled with problems. The bronze statues dated back to the 4th century BC, and the marble statues were found to be 1st century BC copies of earlier works.
The ship was made of elm, a wood often used by the Romans in their ships. Many have speculated that the ship was carrying part of the loot of the Roman General Sulla from Athens in 86 BC There is speculation that the ship might have been on its way to Italy, and a reference by the Greek writer Lucian, to one of Sulla's ships sinking in the Antikythera region, reinforced the theory. Domestic utensils and objects from the ship were eventually carbon dated, and this supported the Sulla theory, dating the ship wreck to 65 BC ±15 years.
To date, excavation work continues on the site of the wreck to find items of interest such as the ship's anchor.
[edit] References
- Nigel Pickford, The Atlas of Ship Wrecks & Treasures, p 13-15, ISBN 0-86438-615-X.
- Willard Bascom, Deep water, ancient ships: The treasure vault of the Mediterranean, ISBN 0-7153-7305-6.
