Antikythera Shipwreck

By: Andrew Tan

In the Roman era, a cargo ship that sank near the Greek island of Antikythera over two thousand years ago has yielded plentifully ancient treasures since 1900. Divers recently uncovered the ship and are still procuring more treasures from the shipwreck.

The ancient Roman vessel dated from around 60 BCE, when Greece was under the rule of the Roman Empire. The sponge divers took 36 marble statues, including mythological figures like Hermes, Apollo, and Hercules. In addition, they recovered several bronze statues that are so rare that they were melted to make coins and weapons.

Furthermore, they found the Antikythera Mechanism, the world’s oldest computer used to calculate and display information about astronomical phenomena, such as eclipses.

Lastly, the exploration project halted as a diver was killed in the summer of 1901, and two others were paralyzed from decompression sickness. Moreover, in 1976, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his crew revisited the shipwreck and retrieved human skeletal remains and other objects.