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shipwreck were the stuff of traditional knowledge around the craggy coast of Fourni , a Hellenic archipelago close to Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea . generation of local fishermen and sponge loon had seen mass of ancient clayware collecting algae on the seafloor . Last calendar month , a group of marine archaeologists last investigate the pee , and their wealth of findings far exceeded expectations .
During the very first nosedive of the dispatch , the team witness the remains of a belated Romanist - period wreck strew with sea grass in shallow water . By day 5 , the researchers had discovered evidence of nine more sunken ships . The next day , they institute another six . By the prison term the 13 - day survey was end up , the diver had locate 22shipwrecks — some more than 2,500 age previous — that had never been scientifically document before .
The remains of 22 shipwrecks, which comprised piles of cargo from the doomed vessels, have been discovered around the Greek archipelago of Fourni.
" I think we were all shocked , " said Peter Campbell , carbon monoxide gas - director of the labor from the U.S.-based RPM Nautical Foundation . " We were gestate three or four shipwreck , and we would have been very well-chosen . " [ See pic of the Newly Discovered Greek Shipwrecks ]
Just how many more wrecks are hidden around Fourni — which dwell between the island of Samos and Icaria — is anyone ’s guess , Campbell said . The expedition turn up doomed vessels from the Archaic period ( 700 - 480 B.C. ) to the late knightly menstruum ( 16th century A.D. ) , from depth of 180 feet ( 55 meters ) to as shallow as 10 feet ( 3 m ) . And yet , this initial sketch deal simply 17 straightforward miles(44 square kilometers ) , just 5 percent of the archipelago ’s coast . antecedently , about 180ancient shipwreckshad been well - documented in all of Greece ’s territorial amnionic fluid . These new discoveries add 12 percent to the full number of known shipwreck , the leader of the projection said .
" In a survey , you do n’t really choose what you ’re go to find — you just dive , " George Koutsouflakis , the Hellenic director of the survey , from the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities , tell apart Live Science . " We knew already that Fourni was a hub in navigation in the Aegean , so we had some expectations , but the results surprised us . The grandness of this place was underestimate . "
An archaeologist prepares a level on one of the wrecks.
Though Fourni did n’t have major cities , it was notable in the ancient world for its position along Aegean crosswalk routes , both east - west and north - south . Early Imperial Roman sources say that Fourni was very well-fixed , had a robust universe and had marble mine in full operation , Koutsouflakis tell . But mentions of the archipelago in recent Roman text are scant , which is why the frogman were surprised that about half of the wrecks found in the survey escort to this period . [ In Photos : ' Most Beautiful Lakes ' notice Beneath Aegean Sea ]
" By the recent Romanist period , we do n’t really know anything about the island , " Koutsouflakis tell . " Fourni is hardly observe in the source of that clip . You see that the shipwrecks tell us a more nuanced write up . The island must have uphold grandness as a haven site . "
The master component of these shipwreck , Mrs. Henry Wood , is n’t likely to survive centuries at the bottom of the sea , unless it is buried in mud without oxygen to fueldecomposition . So far , the shipwreck that have been encounter around Fourni bear few tincture of the vessels themselves ( though future submerged excavations may change that ) . rather , the underwater diver documented messy piles of suffer cargo , mostly transport vessels like amphoras , whichsank with their shipsclose to the cliffs on Fourni ’s coast .
" A lot of meter , you could see near the point of impact where the ships must have crashed , and then you have this scatter pile raining down the underwater slope of the drop , " Campbell said . " These are n’t the dainty ship - shaped piles ofamphorasthat you sometimes get in ship that wrack far out at ocean . We believably do have some of those , but they ’re probably far aside from shoring . "
Campbell said that of the 22 newly learn shipwreck , three have unique loading that have never been found before in Mediterranean shipwrecks : a treasure trove of Archaic tummy from nearby Samos that was in all likelihood designate for Cyprus , but did n’t make it very far ; a group of huge second - C A.D. amphora from the Black Sea region ; and a cache of " Sinopian carrots , " or amphoras that come from Sinop on the Black Sea coast of Turkey and , as the name implies , are shaped mistily like cultivated carrot .
Koutsouflakis and Campbell said they intend to go back to Fourni , equipped with subaquatic robots and other technologies , to look for for more wreck before they plan any submerged excavation . For now , they have taken artefact sample ashore for analysis at a laboratory in Athens , Greece , partly to seek to find out what was on board — wine-colored , vegetable oil , fish sauce — the sick - plump out ships that met their demise at Fourni .
