Archaeologists from the Hellenic Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, with the support of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, conducted a new underwater excavation (15-17.09) at one of the richest shipwrecks of antiquity - the Antikythera shipwreck. The new archaeological investigations, assisted with metal detectors, have retrieved tableware, ship components, and a giant bronze spear, which was probably attached to a warrior statue, as the dive team believes.

The mission has helped clarify the precise spatial distribution of the shipwreck and its proximity to a second location, where piles of amphorae and evidence of ship structures and equipment were found, generating questions about whether this is an extension of the first shipwreck or the remains of a second.

There has been speculation that the vessel, which was probably travelling from the coast of Asia Minor to Rome when lost, was carrying a soon-to-be-married woman and her dowry.

Lying 50 metres down a steep underwater slope off Antikythera Island, the Roman commercial vessel's wreck, which dates from 70-60BC, was accidentally located by sponge divers more than a century ago. Using primitive suits and assisted by the Greek navy, they raised marble and bronze statues, luxury tableware and the so-called Antikythera Mechanism, precision bronze clockwork device, the first known analog computer that tracked the movements of the sun, moon and planets, and was able to predict eclipses.