Archaeologists this week embarked on a new mission, dubbed "Big Fat Greek expedition, exploring ancient wrecks in the Aegean Sea, where more than 100 years ago has been discovered in one of the most complex of ancient artifacts.
Antikythera mechanism was found to shatter the Roman ship near the Greek-owned island of Antikythera, is an old computer, which is at least 2000 years. It is believed that this complex clock-like device was used in ancient Greece, the movement of the stars and planets in the calculation. The mechanism is composed of at least 30 different bronze gears and arranged in a wooden shell, adorned with at least 2000 cells.
The device history is shrouded in mystery. It is not clear how such a complex device fell into the hands of the Romans, but some believe that the ship carried a major accident, women who were to marry in Rome. The mechanism, in addition to other impressive board of former wealth, her family was able to be a wedding gift. Radiocarbon method of dating shows that the wealth crammed boat sank about 60 BC
To learn more about this mysterious antiquities, the researchers returned to wreck the place, armed with sophisticated diving suit, which could go down deeper than ever before. Costing $ 1.3 million, the suit will allow the team to dive to depths of 150 meters and a few hours thoroughly exploring the ship. But before sending divers, debris and the surrounding seabed testing team will use the first robot. It is expected to confirm the presence of another ship, the scientists hope to lying down side by side.
As archaeologists may have worked at a depth of only 60 meters, the team confident that their month-long expedition to gather a lot of other artifacts. There is debris extracted from the 36 marble statues, some bronze statues, gold jewelry and human residues. "There still remains a lot of things, it was a ship from Asia Minor who was carrying enormous wealth," the AFP said archaeologist Dimitris Kourkoumelis team. But the real treasure of the investigators of the missing parts of the mechanism.
Investigators without understanding what is hiding debris, any additional information that may explain Extraordinary first century before our era origin of the device would be, to say the least, exciting.
