It is a campaign that did not make a splash.
The blue artery of commerce between the continents, the Mediterranean is still full of vestiges, traces and other spoils that its waves have swallowed up, and of which it only reveals the mysteries in small drops, bowing from time to time in the face of the patient efforts of underwater archeology.
This was the case in the fall, off Kassos, the southernmost of the Dodecanese islands, where a team of Greek archaeologists discovered three ancient vessels as well as some remains of their cargo.
Read also: Dozens of ancient wrecks found in the depths of the Black Sea
The most important of these vessels is a Roman wreck from the 2nd-3rd century, the cargo of which was loaded with Dressel 20 type oil amphoras, made in an Iberian workshop in the Guadalquivir region, as well as Africana I type amphoras. produced in workshops in present-day Tunisia.
The other two wrecks are older vessels.
One, carrying Hellenistic amphorae "
from the north of the
Aegean Sea
", is dated to the 1st century BC.
AD;
the other, loaded with classical amphoras from the Greek city of Mendè, in the Chalkidiki peninsula, dates from the 5th century BC.
J.-C ..
1/4 - Activity of Greek archaeologists during the underwater excavation campaign off Kassos (Greece), in September-October 2020. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports / Nikos Koukoulas
2/4 - Activity of Greek archaeologists during the underwater excavation campaign off Kassos (Greece), in September-October 2020. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports / Nikos Koukoulas
3/4 - Activity of Greek archaeologists during the underwater excavation campaign off Kassos (Greece), in September-October 2020. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports / Nikos Koukoulas
4/4 - Activity of Greek archaeologists during the underwater excavation campaign off Kassos (Greece), in September-October 2020. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports / Nikos Koukoulas
This underwater excavation campaign mobilized 23 scientists who spent a total of nearly 200 hours immersed in the prospecting area.
Apart from the ancient wrecks, a fourth vessel dating from modern times has also been found.
Organized from late September to mid-October 2020 under the leadership of Xanthie Argiris and George Koutsouflakis, the campaign is part of a three-year research campaign launched in 2019 by the Éphorie des antiquités sous- marines.
Its main objective is to identify, document and study the marine antiquities of a crossroads site, an important crossing point for navigation since Antiquity.