Continuing Jacques Cousteau's Work
A team of archiologists (and hard core divers) discovered the remains of a 2,000 year-old skeleton in a shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera. The ship is guessed to have been lost at sea around 65BC. The remains and other artifacts brought up on this expedition, however, were not the first to be discovered. In 1900, a group of Greek sponge divers discovered the wreck and started to collect artifacts from the site, and in the 1970's Jacques Cousteau and his team unearthed human remains. One of the most famous artifacts discovered was the Antikythera Mechanism. A device that could track planetary movement and is considered to be one of the earliest computers in the world. This collection marks the first time since the DNA technology was accessible that a specimen has been available.
From the remains, which appear to be that of a 20-ish year old male, scientists hope to discover where he was from and even what he looked like. He has been nicknamed Pamphilos, after a name found scratched into a wine cup in the wreckage.
Interestingly, this ship was said to be a merchant ship, and was close to the shore when it sank. Any merchants on the ship would have been on deck and had a relatively good chance of escaping to shore. Those below deck, or worse, shackled below deck would have no chance to escape. Some of the bone fragments appear to be red in color and scientists say these are iron oxides. Some yet unidentified corroded iron objects were found scattered around the bones, giving this discovery a grisly undertone.
Time is not on the side of the remains and artifacts since being underwater for 2,000 years, the surface environment can cause them to disintegrate rapidly. Permission is needed from the Grecian government before any DNA testing can be done on the remains. DNA results will take about a month to yield any results.
Most divers, myself included, get overly excited to even find golf balls and old sunglasses when we dive. This must have been a very exciting day!
Amanda Wardell
Amanda Wardell
Very interesting. I'm not quite sure how the iron oxides cause the wreck to take on a grisly tone though. Are you implying that they have iron residue due to being shackled, thus why they are still on the ship? I guess I just didn't put that together, if that was what you were getting at.
ReplyDelete-Alex G.
Very cool what they can find in shipwrecks. It makes me think of all the other treasures ready to be discovered. With us knowing more about the surface of mars than the ocean shows how interesting and how with scientific advances more shipwrecks will be found!
ReplyDeleteJH
That's pretty crazy that the shipwreck had been known of for 70 years before human remains were even found. Also, I think that's so cool that they found a coffee mug with the name Pamphilos on it. But why would his name be Pamphilos if he was a potential prisoner shackled in the basement? I feel like Pamphilos would more likely be the merchant that may have had this boy as a prisoner. Either way, a super cool discovery! I want to get into scuba diving soon. -Chad B
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine finding something like this, and like you said, how exciting that would be! It is cool that they can look at the artifacts found with the remains, and find out a lot about the person. It would be cool to be able to see what kind of life this man was living, and about how our lives compare today. I also thought it was interesting about when it talked about the earliest computer in the world. It is crazy to think about how we are constantly building and improving on old ideas, and about how things will be further change and improved on in the future.
ReplyDeleteI also had a question. Why was there only one skeleton found? It seems as if he would have been on the boat with numerous other people, so why weren't any other skeletons found?
ReplyDeleteVery cool, it is amazing they found the Antikythera Mechanism and considered it to be one of the earliest computers. It is amazing to know they had invented something like that some many years ago. Were the human remains somewhat buried in the sand is that what to them so long to find them?- D.B.
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