A University of Southampton-led of team of archaeologists has discovered almost two dozen shipwrecks around the Fourni archipelago, Greece.
Archaeologists survey the scatter of a Late Roman shipwreck. Image credit: V. Mentogianis.
The Fourni archipelago is a group of small islands that lie in a triangle formed by the eastern Aegean islands of Ikaria, Samos and Patmos.
The islands never hosted big cities, instead their importance comes from their critical role as an anchorage and navigational point in the eastern Aegean.
The archipelago lies along a major east-west crossing route, as well as the primary north-south route that connected the Aegean to the Levant.
The wrecks discovered by the team date from the Archaic Period (700 – 480 BC) through the Late Medieval Period (16th century CE).
Several wrecks date to the Classical (480 – 323 BC) and Hellenistic (323 BC – 31 BC) periods, but over half date to the Late Roman Period (300 – 600 CE).
According to the archaeologists, the ships’ cargos point to the importance of long distance trade between the Black Sea, Aegean Sea, Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt – in all these periods.
“The concentration of ancient shipwrecks is unprecedented. The volume of shipwrecks in Fourni, an island that had no major cities or harbors, speaks to its role in navigation as well as the perils of sailing the eastern Aegean,” said team member Dr Peter Campbell, an archaeologist with the RPM Nautical Foundation and the University of Southampton, UK.
An underwater archaeologist searches around amphorae encrusted in the reef. Image credit: V. Mentogianis.
“What is astonishing is not only the number of the shipwrecks, but also the diversity of the cargos, some of which have been found for first time,” added team member Dr George Koutsouflakis of the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities.
“At least three of the sites have cargos that have not been found previously on shipwrecks.”
The team uncovered representative artifacts, primarily amphoras, from each wreck site for scientific analysis. They also mapped each wreck using photogrammetry to create 3D site plans.
The artifacts are currently undergoing conservation in a lab in Athens and may go on displays in museums in the future.
The archaeologists said that their discovery adds 12% to the total number of known ancient shipwrecks in Greece.
