18. A Forgotten Sea Wreck
The small Greek island of Antikythera is located in the Eastern Mediterranean, between Crete and the Peloponnese Peninsula. It is halfway along the sea lanes used by ships that traversed the waters between Italy and Asia Minor, modern Turkey. The island’s jagged coastline was and remains dangerous, and ships have frequently wrecked on its rocks.
Such was the fate of one ship that was sailing to the western Mediterranean around 65 BC when it and its cargo, which included luxury items, went down off Antikythera. It came to rest on the sea bottom, and was forgotten for centuries, until 1900. That spring, some fishermen who often dove for sponges off the island, saw a bronze hand sticking out of the sand, about 50 meters beneath the waves. They told officials, and Greek authorities ordered an archaeological search of what was identified as a sunken ship.
