The wreck of Antikythera - new discoveries

Listen to this article Thanks to the work of marine archaeologists, new facts have been established about the unusual find of a wreck near the Greek island of Antikhitira. Discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, the ancient ship carried many valuable artefacts, but is best known for its unusual, astronomical mechanism, which in

ByTomasz Andrukajtis

Published: January 17, 2013 - 21:04

Updated: July 22, 2023 - 04:22

The wreck of Antikythera – new discoveries

Listen to this article

Thanks to the work of marine archaeologists, new facts have been established about the unusual find of a wreck near the Greek island of Antikhitira. Discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, the ancient ship carried many valuable artefacts, but is best known for its unusual, astronomical mechanism, which in no way fell to the rest of the discovery.

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The Roman vessel, which dates to 67 BC, was probably carrying looted treasures from Greece to Caesar’s country. According to the latest findings, the size of the ship is twice as large as previously thought. According to Brendan Foley of the Massachusetts Institute of Oceanography – “we were completely surprised by our discovery, it turns out that for its time, the ship was simply enormous and measured about 50m!

The wreck was made famous by one of the finds made in its vicinity. It is, of course, the mechanism from Antikythera – which is the most complicated device that has survived to this day from ancient times. The astronomical computer, as it is often called, was so advanced that other similar devices appeared only around the 17th century! The owner of the mechanism could, thanks to it, use a lunar calendar or predict the movement of planets.

The survey of the wreck and its surroundings, will take another two years and will be led by Aggeliki Simossi of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities.

Interested in the Antikhitira mechanism? See what we wrote about it in June 2011!

Source: xray-mag.com

About author

Tomasz Andrukajtis

Editor-in-chief of the DIVERS24 portal and magazine. Responsible for obtaining, translating and developing content. He also supervises all publications. Achived his first diving certification – P1 CMAS, in 2000. Has a degree in journalism and social communication. In the diving industry since 2008.