Mathias Buttet, Director of R&D at Hublot, and designer of the Antikythera Mechanism watch arrived in Antikythera today, perfect timing to observe the excavation in top gear over the next few days.

Another interesting arrival was a caïque with Kalymnian sponge divers on board, who will be diving for sponges in the area this week. It was quite nostalgic talking to the guys, who have a similar vessel and use similar techniques to the sponge divers who originally found the Antikythera shipwreck in 1900.

Luxury watch maker HUBLOT is a major sponsor of the Return to Antikythera project and their support is greatly appreciated.

Mathias Buttet being briefed on progress so far.

The sponge diving boat from Kalymnos.

Gemma Smith, Phil Short & Jo Marchant had a great time talking to the sponge divers.

The whole dive team was excited about sponge diving techniques of the past. Here’s Evan Kovacs with a locally harvested sponge to take back to the USA as a present.

We’d like to thank Dr. Fotini Lata for her help this week, when team photographer Brett Seymour sustained a hand injury. She helped diagnose the injury and immobilized Brett’s hand, which assisted him in getting back in the water sooner.

It’s a shame that Fotini finishes her post in Antikythera today and we wish her the best, perhaps returning next year as team doctor for Return to Antikythera 2016.

Dr. Fotini Lata, with journalist and author of Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant, Brett Seymour & Brendan Foley.

The team has found a good rhythm and is being very productive. It takes a week to set up and then the first few days to iron out any bugs, and now we’re past those phases, the team is hitting its stride. Below is a selection of photos from today, showing the team in action.

And beneath the surface, the following video by Evan Kovacs provides insight regarding how working in water is like being in a different world.

Photos by John Fardoulis ©ARGO 2015

Mooring the boats.

Dr. Carl Kaiser preparing the ROV, which provides a live video feed to the surface.

Archaeologists Dr. Brendan Foley & Dr. Dave Conlin waiting for their dive slot.

Alexander Sotiriou getting ready for the first dive of the day, to move the underwater dredge.

Here’s Gemma Smith, ready for business.

Captain Mihalis Kelaidis helping Evan Kovacs & Brett Seymour back into the boat after their dive.

The underwater excavation is currently in full swing, with multiple 2-3 diver teams making the most of their bottom time each day.

A very detailed map has been created for the site by an underwater robot at the beginning of summer and last year, meaning that everything retrieved from the shipwreck can be plotted on this blueprint, which helps us better understand the shipwreck by studying the spatial relationship between objects.

If you go back a few posts, an explanation was provided about how the underwater dredge works. It’s currently a major tool in helping uncover thousands of years of sand/silt/gravel. Today’s photos are by Brett Seymour.

Dives are staged to maximise efficiency, with decompression time often overlapping so that multiple buddy pairs complete their hang time together.

Here’s the underwater dredge in action.

We’ve got two new videos to view on our YouTube channel, one showing what the expedition was like yesterday, and another showcasing the M/Y Glaros, which arrived in Antikythera last night, generously provided for use during the project by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation.

Lots of very high quality photos have been taken so far, and hours of inspiring video has been filmed, we’ll endeavour to share more over the coming days.

This is a live update from over the Antikythera shipwreck.

The archaeologists in our team dived the wreck for the first time today, a major milestone. Stay tuned for more information!

Dr. Brendan Foley is still in the water decompressing after diving the shipwreck, more information soon.

Dr. Theotokis Theodoulou has just surfaced after diving the shipwreck.

Alex Tourtas has just surfaced after diving the Antikythera shipwreck.

The first dives of the expedition took place on the Antikythera shipwreck today, setting up mooring and safety lines at various depths, so that the boats can be safely positioned above the site, protecting it and also providing a safe operating environment for divers to work and decompress.

Datum lines were also established to help orientate research activities this season. The level of excitement has increased with the site now ready for work, after spending the last week setting up the tonnes of equipment needed for the project.

Stay tuned for insight from one of the most exciting underwater excavations in the world.

Phil Short and Gemma Smith, preparing to splash for the first dive of the season.

Evan Kovacs filming schools of fish swimming in the surge during decompression, after filming on the wreck.

Lowering the water dredge, ready for excavating.

Gemma Smith decompressing after being the first female diver on the wreck, as far as we know, another milestone for today.

Phil Short, decompressing after the first dive on the wreck for this season

Alexander Sotiriou decompressing after his first dive on the wreck this season.

OTE-COSMOTE is the expedition’s telecommunications provider, connecting the team with the outside world.

To support the project, OTE-COSMOTE installed two new cell phone towers last year on Antikythera. One is near the island’s largest village, Potamos, and the other overlooks the shipwreck site. Beyond project needs, this provides better (and much faster) connectivity for the island in general. It’s great that the Return to Antikythera project can provide such a legacy for Antikythera, in association with OTE-COSMOTE.

Here’s some photos taken by one of our drones of the tower that serves Potamos.

Underwater archaeology depends on a wide range of equipment, first and foremost apparatus to breathe underwater, which becomes more challenging at depths below 40 metres. Secondly, gravity is different underwater, meaning that you can’t just remove sand and place it in a wheelbarrow, as with land archaeology. These two topics lead into an explanation regarding equipment being prepared in Antikythera today…

Rebreathers
The majority of divers in the project will be using rebreathers, which are different from standard scuba kit – where exhaled breaths are recycled in a ‘closed circuit’ system, filtered, with a touch of oxygen added, and ‘re’-breathed. This is a lot more efficient than standard Scuba kit, meaning that less breathing gas is needed per diver and optimal breathing gasses can be inhaled.

Divers breathe a special gas mixture, commonly known as Trimix because at depths deeper than 50 metres, a gas mix including helium is better so that some of the nitrogen and oxygen we normally breath in air is removed, because of undesirable properties under greater pressure. Too much nitrogen at depth leads to a phenomena called nitrogen narcosis (aka. raptures of the deep), with similarities to being intoxicated, impairing the diver’s ability to work underwater. Sponge divers who recovered statues and the Antikythera mechanism in the early 1900’s breathing air pumped from the surface would have suffered a lot while working.

Underwater Dredge
Another piece of equipment being prepared today is the underwater dredge, a suction system that will be used to carefully excavate parts of the shipwreck that are buried in the sand. The plan is to set up an underwater grid and create associated trenches, to systematically remove pockets of sand. It could take years to excavate the entire site, so a systematic approach allows work to take place in a modular way. Everything found will then be logged onto a detailed map/chart, to indicate the spatial relationship between items recovered.

Preparing the underwater dredge.

Over 70 metres of hoses are needed for the underwater dredge.

This is the VMS Sentinal rebreather that most of the team is using.

Notice the twin hoses connected to the mouth piece in the middle. Gas breathed comes in from one hose, and is exhaled and ‘recycled’ through the other.

And a view of the twin hoses from the other side, with the mouth piece that the diver breathes through, in the centre. The clear cylindrical object at the top right displays warning and status lights throughout the dive.