Antikythera Shipwreck Priceless Discoveries

A ship that had sunk down the coast of Antikythera, a Greek Island around the 60 B.C was discovered in 1900 by a few divers.

Antikythera shipwreck is known as the Roman shipwreck that is known to have yielded innumerable treasure troves, including coins, statues and other artifacts that go way back to the 4th century B.C.

All these artifacts are considered to be priceless, which also the make this shipwrecked site the richest most discoveries to be made till date.

What all was discovered?

As mentioned before, numerous Antikythera shipwreck artifacts that were found from the wreck dated back to the 4th century.

Along with the help of the Royal Hellenic Navy and the Greek Education ministry, the divers who discovered the shipwreck managed to discover numerous different types of precious artifacts from the deep waters.

Among the priceless artifacts that were discovered are:

• Bronze statues; one of these bronze statues is known as ‘The philosopher’, the youth of Antikythera along with some other sculptures that included Hercules, Apollo, Hermes, Diomedes and the Ulysses.

• Then there were also statues of four horses discovered, one of which was lost during the discovery.

• Several kinds of glasswork have been found along with a bronze Iyre.

• Coming to the equipment that was there on the ship and which was later discovered are some scupper pipes made of lead and a set of weights that weighed around 6kg and 14 kg.

• A corroded piece of bronze was found that had a wheel with Greek inscriptions embedded in it; this came to be known as the Antikythera Mechanism and was founded in the year 1902.

• Pieces of pottery helped in telling the date of the voyage.

• Some ornate glass bowls were also discovered, these bowls were known to be high-ended which likely belonged to Alexandria.

• Later in the year 1953 after the death of the original divers; the shipwrecked site was again explored by Jacques-Yves Cousteau an explorer.

He and his efficient team recovered some more Antikythera shipwreck artifacts that included some 300 artifacts comprising of ceramic jars, bronze as well as silver coins, marble sculptures, bronze statues, different pieces of gold jewellery and also some human remains. These human remains are considered to be the remains of the ship crew as well as of the passengers on the ship.

All these artifacts of this Greek wreck can be found at the National archaeological museum of Athens, where they have been put on display for the common public and for young and budding explorers who can gather some inspiration from them.

The Antikythera shipwreck and other wrecks in the same area are known for offering some great discoveries related to the early centuries not only in terms of technology but also in terms of culture of that age.

With more and more explorers, exploring this Greek wreck site, more and more different treasures and artifacts are being found indicating that there is more to find in this area of Antikythera shipwreck area.