22 Shipwrecks Found in Single Location in Greece

Discovery News ^ | Wednesday, October 28, 2015 | Rossella Lorenzi

[SunkenCiv]

Hailed as one of the top archaeological finds of 2015, the discovery was made by a joint Greek-American archaeological expedition in the small Fourni archipelago with an area of just 17 square miles. This is a collection of 13 islands and islets located between the eastern Aegean islands of Samos and Icaria.

"Surpassing all expectations, over only 13 days we added 12 percent to the total of known ancient shipwrecks in Greek territorial waters," Peter Campbell, of the University of Southampton and co-director from US based RPM Nautical Foundation, told Discovery News.

Fourni lies right in the middle of the major east-west crossing route, as well as the north-south route that connected the Aegean to the Levant. Ships traveling from the Greek mainland to Asia Minor, or ships leaving the Aegean for the Levant had to pass by Fourni.

"Ikaria and the west coast of Samos have no harbors or anchorages, so Fourni is the safest place that ships could stop in the area," Campbell said.

It was the first time that an underwater archaeological expedition was organized to the islands. Archaeologists from the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and RPM Nautical Foundation worked with local sponge divers, fishermen, and free divers, and were more than surprised by the results.

Funding was provided by the Honor Frost Foundation, a UK charity that supports research in the eastern Mediterranean through an endowment from pioneer maritime archaeologist Honor Frost.

"In a typical survey we locate four or five shipwrecks per season in the best cases," Greek director George Koutsouflakis said.

"We expected a successful season, but no one was prepared for this. Shipwrecks were found literally everywhere."

[Verginius Rufus]

Samos was also the birthplace of Aristarchus of Samos, whose heliocentric theory (that the earth and planets circle around the sun instead of everything circling around the earth) was known to Copernicus.

[Daffynition]

Bobby Ballard...the *go-to guy* of ship wrecks; his developments of ROVs and the *Argo* lead the way for others who follow.

Ancient Mariners of the Mediterranean

[Loud Mime]

Imagine piloting a ship around there in the old days. Man, you could get lost in a hurry.

[Loud Mime]

Very Interesting; thanks!

[Daffynition]

If you homeschool .... Bob’s *JASON Project* is a must. If it doesn’t ignite kids....I don’t know what will. ;)

http://www.jasonproject.org/

[TXnMA]

"Samos was also the birthplace of Aristarchus of Samos,"

Yes, indeed -- a very important point!

I emphasized Pythagoras, because I include a submodule on Pythagoras and "his" "3, 4, 5 triangle" in my unit on "Archaeology for Fourth Grade"... (Even today's archaeologists use the principle for laying out precisely square excavation grids...)

But, then I "blow the Greek out of the water" by showing that Amenhotep in Egypt beat Pythagoras to it by over a millennium -- when he used the same "triangle" for laying out the Pyramids... '-)

[Larry Lucido]

I like to turn on sirens.

[TXnMA]

Toss in darkness, fog, and — heaven forbid!— a storm, and I wouldn’t want to be in those waters in a modern warship...

[TigersEye]

I’ve found that the hard part is turning them off! :-)

[SunkenCiv]

I think the problem is, the archaeologists doing this are landlubbers. It’s much more likely that these islands were hidey holes, both for pirates and for ships trying to elude pirates. The same kind of landlubber mindset produces howlers like, “ancient sailors hugged the coastline” — y’know, the coastline, where 99% of the dangerous shoals are.

[SunkenCiv]

The Turks had at least one rail tunnel under the strait, I believe, and over the past ten-fifteen years have been digging a newer system that will take much more traffic volume. In the process of this, they’ve turned up ancient ships, wharves, etc, and other ancient sites that had to be rescue-dug.

The bridging of the straits in ancient times was accomplished at least twice by the Persians, hmm, maybe three times, using pontoon bridges. They built a bridge for the Greek war, the one that included the militarily insignificant Thermopylae but was answered decisively at Salamis. The Persians also bridged it for their campaign into Scythia, which turned out to be a huge waste of their time, because the Scythians lived in the saddle, and would just bug out when they saw the cloud of dust. As the winter started to close in, the Persians marched out as fast as their feet would carry them. Odd that neither Napoleon nor the WWI and WWII Germans didn’t learn from this.

[SunkenCiv]

He’d probably be *more* successful if he’d campaign from a chaise lounge on an Aegean beach.

[Enterprise]

Those sirens could sink me and they wouldn’t even have to sing too well.

[Carry_Okie]

The Turks had at least one rail tunnel under the strait, I believe,

That is under the Bosporus, not the Dardanelles, which is 140 miles to the southeast of the Bosporus across the Sea of Marmara.

[TXnMA]

FWIW, there is still a village on the Samos coast facing that Turkish peninsula -- named, "Pythagoreio"... '-)

[Daffynition]

http://nauticalarch.org/gallery/ina-turkey/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0110_030113_blacksea_2.html

Radiocarbon analysis of fish bone samples taken from the amphora conducted at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, indicated that the bones were between 2,490 and 2,280 years old. The analysis also confirmed the age of the shipwreck. (Wood samples were also gathered at the site of the shipwreck. However, radiocarbon analysis indicated that the wood was modern, most likely trash that drifted onto the site.)

Questions remain about the olive pits and resin also found inside the amphora, however, and whether or not the amphora was reused to ship various trade goods. Amphorae most often carried wine and olive oil. Resin was used to coat the vessels' interiors to prevent leakage.

"The key was that inside this particular amphora there were olive pits. So the question [is], was there olive oil? Or was it just…residual from a previous shipment?" Ballard said.

[Loud Mime]

I just found this during research for a book I'm editing: Passage to America 1750

[4yearlurker]

Maelstrom.

[FreedomPoster]

A song comes to mind.

Tales of Brave Ulysses
https://youtu.be/u8hLc_nqx8g

And the colors of the sea blind your eyes with trembling mermaids,
And you touch the distant beaches with tales of brave Ulysses:
How his naked ears were tortured by the sirens sweetly singing,
For the sparkling waves are calling you to kiss their white laced lips.

[curmudgeonII]

The Italian navy?