Return to Antikythera
have been constructed in the Aegean. Foley said some of the ceramic roof tiles recovered from the wreck bear Greek stamps. “We’ll need to do a lot more research and excavation before we can draw any meaningful conclusions about the ship’s home port,” he said. Foley says that while the ship’s
route is also not known for sure, the cargo off ers a few clues. He said the stone from which many of the marble statues were made came from the Greek island of Paros in the Aegean and that another island, Delos, may have been a stopping point along the ship’s route, and a possible point of origin of the statues. “Various schools and even some individual sculptors have been suggested as the artists of these works,” he said. Clay amphoras could have come from other Greek islands such as Kos and Rhodes. Many coins found at the wreck site come from Pergamon
24 Magazine
in Asia Minor. Foley suggests that other cargo such as fi ne glass and ceramic tableware could have come from lands across a wide sweep of the eastern Mediterranean, today the countries of Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Artifacts recovered during this year’s operation included the practical, such as a beautiful, and intact, table jug and an ornate bed leg. A 6.5-foot (2m) long spear was also found. Its size and weight suggest it was more likely for display than used as a weapon. Foley speculates it may be part of a large-scale statue, perhaps of a warrior or the goddess Athena. During the 1901 exploration divers identifi ed four
large marble horses that may have been part of a sculpture including chariot and warriors, complete with spear(s). The artifact for which
Top right: part of the celebrated ‘Antikythera Mechanism’.
Top left: Hellenic Navy and JF
White project team recover
Exosuit. Bottom: glassware recovered
during an earlier expedition
the wreck site is best known is the Antikythera mechanism, as it’s called, which dates from the 2nd century BC. This remarkably complex device is the most sophisticated mechanism that survives from antiquity and has astonished historians and archaeologists. Characterized as the world’s oldest known mechanical computer, it tracked astronomical phenomena and the cycles of the Solar System, although this understanding came only after much research decades after its discovery. The mechanism is the
embodiment of ancient knowledge, Foley says, because its manufacture exhibits the sophistication of
ancient craftsmen, but it’s also remarkable because it speaks to contact between people living far apart in time and distance. “The movements of the planets, eclipses, and orbital aberrations encoded in
Map: Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Artifacts: © National Archaeological Museum, Athens / Courtesy: Archaeological Receipts Fund of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62