Antikythera Wreck

The Antikythera wreck is a shipwreck that in October 1900 was discovered by sponge divers off the coast of the Greek island, Antikythera. By the end of 1902, divers had recovered statues of a philosopher's head, a young boy, a discus thrower, the bronze Antikythera Ephebe of ca. 340 BC, a Hercules, a marble bull and a bronze lyre. Many other small and common artifacts were also found.

On 17 May 1902, however, archaeologist Valerios Stais made the most celebrated find, identified as the Antikythera mechanism.

Although the retrieval of artifacts from the shipwreck was highly successful and accomplished in two years, dating the site proved difficult and took much longer. Based on related works with known provenances, some of the bronze statues dated back to the 4th century BC, while the marble statues were found to be 1st century BC copies of earlier works.

Some scholars have speculated that the ship was carrying part of the loot of the Roman General Sulla from Athens in 86 BC, and might have been on its way to Italy. A reference by the Greek writer, Lucian, to one of Sulla's ships sinking in the Antikythera region gave rise to this theory.

Supporting an early 1st century BC date were domestic utensils and objects from the ship, similar to those known from other 1st century BC contexts.  Remains of hull planks showed that the ship was made of elm, a wood often used by the Romans in their ships. Eventually in 1964 a sample of the hull planking was carbon dated, and delivered a calibrated calendar date of 220 BC ±43 years. Further evidence for an early 1st century BC sinking date came in 1974: Professor Derek de Solla Price published his interpretation of the Antikythera mechanism. He argued convincingly that the object was a calendar computer. From gear settings and inscriptions on the mechanism's faces, he concluded that the mechanism was made about 87 BC and lost only a few years later.

Images

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