What am I looking at?
The Antikythera wreck (Greek: ναυάγιο των Αντικυθήρων, romanized: navágio ton Antikythíron) is a Roman-era shipwreck dating from the second quarter of the first century BC.
The quick answer
The Antikythera wreck (Greek: ναυάγιο των Αντικυθήρων, romanized: navágio ton Antikythíron) is a Roman-era shipwreck dating from the second quarter of the first century BC.
How it came to be
The wreck yielded numerous statues, coins, and other artifacts dating back to the fourth century BC, as well as the severely corroded remnants of a device many regard as the world's oldest known analog computer, the Antikythera mechanism. These ancient artifacts, works of art, and elements of the ship are now on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
The detail most people miss
Around Easter 1900, Captain Dimitrios Kondos and his crew of sponge divers from Symi sailed through the Aegean en route to fishing grounds off North Africa. They stopped at the Greek island of Antikythera to wait for favorable winds. During the layover, they began diving off the island's coast wearing the standard diving dress of the time – waterproofed canvas suits and copper helmets.
Why it still matters
Diver Elias Stadiatis descended to 45 meters (148 ft) depth, then quickly signaled to be pulled to the surface. He described a heap of rotting corpses and horses strewn among the rocks on the seafloor. Thinking the diver was drunk from the nitrogen in his breathing air at that depth, Kondos donned diving gear and descended to the site. He soon returned to the surface with the arm of a bronze statue. Shortly thereafter, the men departed as planned to fish for sponges, but at the end of the season they returned to Antikythera and retrieved several artifacts from the wreck. Kondos reported the finds to authorities in Athens, and Hellenic Navy vessels were quickly sent to support the salvage effort from November 1900 through 1901.
Look closer
Together with the Greek Education Ministry and the Royal Hellenic Navy, the sponge divers salvaged numerous artifacts. By the middle of 1901, divers had recovered bronze statues, one named "The Philosopher", the Youth of Antikythera (Ephebe) of c. 340 BC, and thirty-six marble sculptures including Hercules, Odysseus, Diomedes, Hermes, Apollo, three marble statues of horses (a fourth was dropped during recovery and was lost on the sea floor), a bronze lyre, and several pieces of glasswork. Recovered ship's equipment included lead scupper pipes and hull sheeting, and a set of sounding leads weighing 6 and 14 kg (13 and 31 lb). These are the only sounding weights ever discovered on an ancient shipwreck in the Aegean, although comparable examples have been recovered along the Levantine coast. Many other small and common artifacts also were found, and the entire assemblage was taken to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The death of diver Giorgos Kritikos and the paralysis of two others due to decompression sickness put an end to work at the site during the summer of 1901.
