- Also, they have found human teeth embedded in a mass, whose genetic material can be analyzed.
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| Discovery of ceramic and copper objects in the Aegean Sea. / EFE |
A large marble head has been found during an underwater archaeological investigation. The team that came across this discovery was European and they found it in the famous Antikythera shipwreck in the Aegean Sea, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture.
Researchers have identified the head as a Farnese-type Hercules and believe it could belong to headless statue 5742 in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which was found in the same shipwreck in 1900.
In addition, they have found two human teeth embedded in a solid mass with traces of copper, whose genetic material can be analyzed to determine the gender and characteristics of the person to whom they belonged.
Other elements that were found were numerous objects belonging to the ship, such as bronze, iron, nails, and other amorphous masses deformed by water and marine life whose secrets can only be traced through an X-ray.
For this project framed in the Five-Year Plan 2021-2025, in which Greek, Italian and Swiss scientists participated, it was necessary to remove some rocks that prevented work on the site. All the pieces were transported to the facilities of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of Greece for their correct conservation.
The southern area of the Peloponnese has always been stormy, which has caused hundreds of shipwrecks since ancient times, among which the Antikythera shipwreck stands out, the most important discovered to date.
This wreck is famous for an intricate artifact: the Antikythera Mechanism, discovered in the 1900s by sponge-collecting divers.
This machine, which was built in the 1st century BC, is considered the oldest computer in the world due to its complicated gear system capable of predicting eclipses and other astronomical phenomena.
At first, it was indecipherable due to the lack of a third of the device's mechanisms, which were reconstructed by University College London through X-rays and a mathematical method from Ancient Greece.