The routine of wrecks discovered at the " shipwreck capital of the human beings " stay on to maturate . According toHaaretz , thelatestfind adds eight new wreck discoveries , work the total up to 53 recessed ship in a 17 - sea mile stretch off the seashore of Fourni , Greece .
AsMental Floss reported , in 2015 archaeologists work off the coast of Fourni identified 22 shipwrecks date stamp back to 700 BCE — already an historic find . But additional dive conducted by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the RPM Nautical Foundation have continued to yield new discoveries . Nine months later , in June 2016 , the Fourni Underwater survey turned up 23 more ancient , Medieval , and post - Medieval shipwreck in the area with the help of local fishermen and sponge divers . The later expedition took billet in June 2017 .
The Fourni archipelago , consisting of 13 tiny islands , never hosted a respectable townspeople , but it was an crucial stopping point for cargo ships routes between the Black Sea , the Aegean Sea , and on to Cyprus , the Levant , and Egypt . The area may have been a hot spot for ships seeking good harbor from wild storms in that part of the Aegean Sea , as Peter Campbell of the RPM Nautical Foundation toldHaaretz . It was n’t an only safe destination for merchandiser ships , though ; it was also a pirate haven .
Some of the in style wrecks found admit a ship from the Greek Classical Period — around 500 BCE to 320 BCE — channel Greekamphorae(ceramic jarful ) , a papistic ship with lineage in the Iberian Peninsula , and linchpin dating back to the Archaic Period ( 800 to 479 BCE ) . researcher found more Harlan Stone , leash , and Fe anchors all the way up to the Byzantine Empire , which lasted until the 15th century .
The ancient swap path that crisscross the Mediterranean ( and the dangers of ancient seafaring ) have made the area a productive ground for millenary - old shipwreck even outside of Fourni . As late as 2016 , divers off the sea-coast of Israelstumbled upona 1600 - year - honest-to-god merchant ship filled with Roman artifacts . In 2015 , Italian diversdiscoveredthe wreck of a 2000 - year - old ship carrying terra cotta tiles in abstruse water system near Sardinia .
The Fourni project is still on-going , and research worker plan to deport a 4th season of submerged surveying in 2018 . Once the labor complete a full survey and corroboration of the area , the researchers may consider excavating some of the wreck .
[ h / tHaaretz ]
All photos by Vasilis Mentogianis courtesy the RPM Nautical Foundation
