During just two weeks of diving in September, a team of American and Greek archaeologists discovered the sites of 22 ancient shipwrecks in a single 17-square-mile area near the Fourni archipelago in the eastern Aegean Sea. In an area as big as the ocean, that's an awful lot, awful fast. The find's an unprecedented cluster, and an archeological gold mine.
Local fishermen and sponge divers tipped off the archaeologists to the locations of the wrecks. The wooden ships have long since decomposed, but clay jars used for cargo storage, called amphorae, remain for researchers to study.
"Surpassing all expectations, over only 13 days we added 12 percent to the total of known ancient shipwrecks in Greek territorial waters," Peter Campbell, an underwater archaeologist with the University of Southampton told Discovery News.
The sheer number of wrecks in a 17-square-mile area is remarkable, but equally fascinating to archaeologists is the broad range of time periods that the ships are from. The most recent ship is from the 16th century A.D., while the oldest vessel was linked to the Archaic Period between 700 and 480 B.C. The majority of the wrecks are from the Late Roman period between 300-600 A.D, likely due to a spike in trade traffic that corresponds to the rise of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Archaeologists can determine when each ship sank by studying the sizes and shapes of the clay jars they carried. The types of amphorae also indicate what goods were being transported, the most abundant commodities being wine, olive oil, and fish sauce. Scientists will study residue samples to determine what the smaller jars held—likely luxury goods such as perfumes and food items like nuts and jams. The goods and the times they came from can help historians create a more complete picture of ancient trade routes and sea travel.
The ships were primarily small merchant vessels that relied on sails rather than oarsmen to travel the seas. It appears that the ships attempted to take refuge from a storm behind a series of cliffs, but shifting winds dashed them against the rocks.
With only a small portion of the area searched, and many more tips from locals, researchers are optimistic that they will find more shipwreck sites in the coming weeks. Locals have also reported smuggling in the area, and the team's divers found evidence of looting at the sites. By mapping the locations of the wrecks, archaeologists hope to help Greek authorities protect the sites from future plundering.
Source: National Geographic