Antikythera wreck
sta Coordinates: 35°53′23″N 23°18′28″E / 35.8897°N 23.3078°E
The Antikythera wreck is a Roman-era shipwreck dating from the 2nd quarter of the 1st century BC. It was discovered by sponge divers off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900.
The wreck yielded numerous statues, coins and other artifacts dating back to the 4th century BC, as well as the severely corroded remnants of a device many regard as the world's oldest known analog computer, the Antikythera mechanism. These ancient artifacts, works of art, and elements of the ship itself are now displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Around Easter 1900, Captain Dimitrios Kondos and his crew of sponge divers from Syme sailed through the Aegean en route to fishing grounds off North Africa. They stopped at the Greek island of Antikythera to wait for favorable winds. During the layover, they began diving off the island's coast wearing the standard diving dresses — canvas suits and copper helmets – of the time.
Diver Elias Stadiatis descended to 45 meters depth, then quickly signaled to be pulled to the surface. He described a seafloor horror show: a heap of rotting corpses and horses strewn among the rocks. Thinking the diver was drunk from the nitrogen in his breathing mix at that depth, Kondos himself donned the diving gear, and soon returned to the surface with the arm of a bronze statue. Shortly thereafter, the men departed as planned to fish for sponges, but at the end of the season they returned to Antikythera and retrieved several artifacts from the wreck. Kondos reported the finds to authorities in Athens, and quickly Hellenic Navy vessels were sent to support the salvage effort from November 1900 through 1901.
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