WildMage
10-10-2014, 11:02 PM
Ancient Greek shipwreck could be largest of its kind (+video)
The 2,000-year-old Antikythera shipwreck in Greece covers a far bigger area than previously thought, say marine archaeologists investigating the site.
By Megan Gannon, LiveScience News Editor October 10, 2014
Ancient tableware, lead anchors and a giant bronze spear have been recovered during an expedition to the 2,000-year-old Antikythera shipwreck in Greece.
The treasure-filled sunken ship was first discovered more than a century ago. Now, undersea excavators who are revisiting the wreck say it actually covers a much bigger area than expected.
"The evidence shows this is the largest ancient shipwreck ever discovered," Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, said in a statement. "It's the Titanic of the ancient world."
Over the past few weeks, Foley and his colleagues used a suite of high-tech equipment — they even tested asemi-robotic Exosuit for diving — to explore the famed Antikythera wreck.
The ship, heavy with luxury goods, likely sank sometime between 70 B.C. and 60 B.C. on its way from Asia Minor west to Rome. Sponge fishermen found the wreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small Greek island with sheer cliffs positioned along an ancient shipping route. The items those first divers salvaged at the time were sensational: bronze and marble statues of heroes and horses, jewelry, furniture, glassware and the Antikythera mechanism, a complex astronomical calculator. But exploring the site at the time, 180 feet (55 meters) below the surface, proved dangerous. One diver died of the bends and two were left paralyzed, according to WHOI.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/1010/Ancient-Greek-shipwreck-could-be-largest-of-its-kind-video
The 2,000-year-old Antikythera shipwreck in Greece covers a far bigger area than previously thought, say marine archaeologists investigating the site.
By Megan Gannon, LiveScience News Editor October 10, 2014
Ancient tableware, lead anchors and a giant bronze spear have been recovered during an expedition to the 2,000-year-old Antikythera shipwreck in Greece.
The treasure-filled sunken ship was first discovered more than a century ago. Now, undersea excavators who are revisiting the wreck say it actually covers a much bigger area than expected.
"The evidence shows this is the largest ancient shipwreck ever discovered," Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, said in a statement. "It's the Titanic of the ancient world."
Over the past few weeks, Foley and his colleagues used a suite of high-tech equipment — they even tested asemi-robotic Exosuit for diving — to explore the famed Antikythera wreck.
The ship, heavy with luxury goods, likely sank sometime between 70 B.C. and 60 B.C. on its way from Asia Minor west to Rome. Sponge fishermen found the wreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small Greek island with sheer cliffs positioned along an ancient shipping route. The items those first divers salvaged at the time were sensational: bronze and marble statues of heroes and horses, jewelry, furniture, glassware and the Antikythera mechanism, a complex astronomical calculator. But exploring the site at the time, 180 feet (55 meters) below the surface, proved dangerous. One diver died of the bends and two were left paralyzed, according to WHOI.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/1010/Ancient-Greek-shipwreck-could-be-largest-of-its-kind-video