Off the coast of Greece, near the tiny island of Antikythera, a 2,000-year-old shipwreck continues to offer up its bounty. When the wreck was discovered 117 years ago, divers recovered life-size bronze and marble statues and a mysterious clockwork device. And last year, researchers found a partial skeleton beneath the sloping seafloor that, through DNA analysis, promises to reveal the biological details of a passenger. Other significant finds might be just a shovel away as the ambitious Return to Antikythera, the first systematic excavation of the shipwreck, continues this summer. Metal detectors show that some of the shipwreck and its artifacts remain entombed in sand, which acts like a hermetic seal to keep out the ravages of the sea. Perhaps another mechanism or collection of sculptures waits to be freed, says Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist at Lund University in Sweden and co-director of the international project.
“Part of the excitement of this wreck,” he says, “is that the possibility of finding something stupendous is great.”
Sailing Ancient Seas
We already know a fair amount about the vessel itself. Around 65 B.C., when Rome ruled over the Mediterranean world, a Greek merchant ship set out west across the Aegean Sea. Measuring 165 feet long, a behemoth at the time, it was loaded with luxury items probably picked up at eastern Mediterranean ports, as well as livestock and scores of travelers, Foley says. Merchant vessels were the only way people could travel to many cities.
