Ancient Shipwreck Where Analog Computer Was Found Yields Fresh Secrets

An ancient Greek shipwreck where a remarkable analog computer was found has yielded fascinating new insights.

The remains of the Roman-era shipwreck—dated to the 1st century B.C.—were fortuitously discovered by sponge divers in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a Greek island on the edge of the Aegean Sea, a part of the wider Mediterranean.

Numerous artifacts have been recovered from the wreck site, including bronze and marble statues, coins, and other items. But perhaps the most intriguing find from the wreck was a mysterious bronze device featuring a number of complex interlocking gears, known as the Antikythera mechanism, that is considered to be the world's oldest known analog computer.

The severely corroded hand-powered device is thought to have been used to predict the movement of astronomical objects, such as the sun and moon, which would have helped to plan important events like religious rituals and agricultural activities.

The device and other artifacts recovered from the shipwreck make it one of the most important discoveries in modern archaeology, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Despite the significance of the artifacts recovered from the wreck, the site has remained largely unexplored, in part because its location and the shape of the seafloor make research challenging.

Now, an expedition to the wreck carried out between May and June this year has made some "significant" finds. The investigations were carried out as part of a research program led by the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece (ESAG) and supervised by the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.

"Until today, extremely little is in fact known about the ship. The new [discoveries are] delivering information about the construction, and the position of the shipwreck on the seabed," Lorenz Baumer, from the University of Geneva in Switzerland and a co-director of the research project, told Newsweek.

"The upcoming analysis is expected to give information about the construction, the wood, and hopefully about the date of the construction of the ship."

Among the expedition's highlights, researchers identified a significant portion of the ancient ship's hull. This portion of the hull features its original fasteners and external protective coating, which are still in excellent condition.

This find has shed some light on the construction of the ship, which the experts believe involved the "shell first" method. It appears that the builders first made the hull with the wooden boards and then installed the ribs inside.

"This structure allows us to better understand the ship's construction characteristics that had remained elusive until now, but also to determine the precise location and orientation of the wreck," Baumer said in an ESAG press release.

Even though only a small part of the ship has been excavated so far—the wreck lies around 160 feet below sea level making precise excavations challenging—the latest find represents "major progress" in understanding the vessel, Baumer told Newsweek.

"[The investigation was] helped by the use of new diving equipment like rebreathers, allowing longer and deeper dives, and underwater drones, allowing [researchers] to follow, document, and understand in real time the excavation."

The expedition also confirmed the presence of a second wooden vessel in the area of the main wreck. Investigations in recent years have raised the possibility that several ships may have been involved in this ancient tragedy.

"This year's findings indicate that we are dealing most probably with a second ship, that probably sank at the same time," Baumer told Newsweek. "The cargo of amphorae and other ceramics [at the second site] is in parts similar to the [main zone]—in other parts different. This is leading to new questions: did the ships travel and sink together? What was the itinerary of the second ship, etc?"

The research team also documented pottery at the site and opened excavation trenches, which revealed around 300 objects, including 21 marble fragments, several structural elements of the ship's hill, and more than 200 ceramic shards. According to the team, the marble fragments indicate the presence of several statues.

The Antikythera mechanism has upended our understanding of ancient technology, given that no other device with a comparable level of sophistication has been known for more than 1,000 years after it was created.

The research project was co-directed by Aggeliki Simossi, director of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. It was sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Hublot, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation and the Nereus Research Foundation.

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Update 7/8/2024, 2:21 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional comment from Lorenz Baumer.