Antikythera Project co-director Brendan Foley of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution presents the latest discoveries from recent excavations conducted with colleagues from the Hellenic Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. Using advanced submersible robotics, technical diving methods, and the latest laboratory analyses, Foley shares findings that overturn conventional wisdom about the vessel and portray a calamity akin to the sinking of RMS Titanic.
Of the estimated one million ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea, the Antikythera wreck is one of the most remarkable. Discovered by sponge divers in 1900 after laying two thousand years on the Aegean sea floor near the island of Antikythera, its spectacular cargo included dozens of marble and bronze statues, jewelry and luxury goods, and an analog-geared device that is known today as the Antikythera Mechanism, often considered the world’s first computer.