Arecheologists have found the underwater remains of an ancient naval base

Danish and Greek archaeologists have found the sunken remains of one of the largest building complexes of the ancient world – a naval base where the entire powerful Athenian fleet was stationed. In ancient times, the base played a key role in the decisive naval battle between Greece and Persia in 480 BC.

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Bjørn Lovén from the University of Copenhagen, together with a team of Greek archaeologists, have found traces of a naval base belonging to ancient Athens, which they found to have been established in 493 BC. The base complex was of great importance in defending ancient Greece from threats coming from the sea.

With its fortifications and hangars housing hundreds of rowing and sailing vessels called triers, the port of Piraeus was an almost impenetrable barrier to enemy ships. Today, the remains of this impressive complex rest underwater in the yacht-fishing port of Mounichia. It was this location that made it impossible for Bjørn Lovén’s team of archaeologists to determine the correct location of the ancient base for a long time.

“At times, visibility underwater here reaches a maximum of 20cm, so working conditions underwater were very poor, making our task very difficult. However, we eventually found the remains of the base and located six shelters, whose job was to protect the Greek ships from the shipworm (a type of mussel) destroying them, and from dislodging them when they were not in use.” – Lovén explains.

As for the shelters themselves, they were enormous. They were 50 metres long and 7-8 metres high. The columns at the entrance had a base of 1.4 by 1.4 metres.

“Based on the ceramics and relying on radiocarbon dating of the wood sample taken, we have determined the age of the structure to be 520-480 BC. This means that both the fortifications and the ships were used during the Persian invasion in the battle of Salamis, which was victorious for the Greeks and was the turning point of the Second Persian War,” – explains Bjørn Lovén.

Source: humanities.ku.dk