The wreck of Antikythera: The ship, the treasures, the Mechanism

This is the first time that all the findings from the Antikythera wreck, dated between 60-50 BC, will be displayed together, while some of the items have never been displayed before.

All antiquities recovered in 1900-1901 and 1976 from the legendary shipwreck off the islet of Antikythera, south of the Peloponnese, will be presented for the first time in a temporary exhibition from April 2012 and for a year at the National Archaeological Museum. The recovery of the shipwreck itself was the first major underwater archaeological expedition. It was undertaken by sponge divers, with the assistance of the Greek Royal Navy (1900-1901). Correspondence, press, photographs and films will document the story of its discovery and recovery and the methods used. The second underwater research was carried out in 1976 by the Greek Archaeological service and J.-Y. Cousteau’s oceonographic “Calypso”.

The wreck is dated aproximately in 60-50 BC, though its cargo from the 4th to the 1st century BC. The study of the cargo will deal with the circulation and trade in the East Mediterranean from the point of view of the aesthetic taste of the rising Roman elite in the end of the Hellenistic Era and the Rome’s democratic period.

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