The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports has issued an official press release about finds from this year’s Return to Antikythera fieldwork season.

The press release is available in Greek here.

One of the most exciting finds was a 210 cm section of a bronze spear, which would have belonged to a larger-than-life statue.

Section of a bronze spear recovered that would have belonged to a larger-than-life statue.

This suggests more statues could be buried in the general area

All major goals were completed, including;

a. Creating a highly detailed map of the site, which will act as a blueprint on which future finds and work can be charted

b. Completing a metal detector survey of the site

c. Gaining a better understanding of how the wreck lays, and where major features (such as the cargo area) may be located

d. Recovering a few select objects and sediment samples for analysis

e. Testing new technology for use in deep water archaeology, such as the Exosuit

More information will be available shortly.

Metal detector survey of the shipwreck area.

Exosuit was deployed as an new tool for deep water archaeology.

Two separate diving operations were planned for today, with rebreather divers investigating the wreck, and the navy Seal (O.Y.K) team were ready to support the Exosuit on the shipwreck.

The rebreather team spent 90 minutes on the bottom, with a further 90 minutes of decompression, completing a three hour dive. They took an extensive amount of photos and video, collecting sediment samples and recovered an object of interest.

The Hellenic navy Seal (O.Y.K) team preparing to board HN THETIS.

The Hellenic Navy vessel HN THETIS was anchored over the wreck, and there were several tests to see if it was safe enough to deploy the Exosuit in windy conditions, with a 2 metre swell.

A ‘hook test’ was completed to see how the large hook on the end of the crane would swing, to decide if Exosuit could be lowered into and out of the water, safely.

It was decided that there was too much risk to deploy the suit, so we’ll try again tomorrow.

Briefing after the hook test.

Stay tuned for more…

HN THETIS has just arrived in Antikythera, with Exosuit on board, plus the balance of the Navy Seal (O.Y.K) team. It will operate as a support vessel for Exosuit to dive the Antikythera shipwreck.

We’re lucky to have the Hellenic Navy is a primary partner.

Last night there was a sponsor event in Kythera, to provide project partners and civic leaders insight into work undertaken this season.

Speakers included Dr. George Kakavas (National Archaeological Museum, Greece), Efstratios Charchalakis (Mayor of Kythera & Antikythera), Lorenzo Amberg (Swiss Ambassador in Athens), Mr. Panos Laskaridis (Aikaterini Laskaridi Foundation), Polly Katsouli (OTE and COSMOTE), Mr. Mathias Buttet (R&D Director of Hublot), Professor Theodosis Tassios (National Technical University of Athens), Dr. Brendan Foley (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/ARGO), Dr. Theotokis Theodoulou (Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities), Alexander Sotiriou (ARGO).

Dr. George Kakavas, National Archaeological Museum, Greece

Mr. Panos Laskaridis, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation

Mathias Buttet, R&D Director at Hublot

Dr. Brendan Foley, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/ARGO

Dr. Theotokis Theodoulou, Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities

Jo Marchant, (Author/Journalist) & Phil Short (Expedition Diver/Technical Diving Instructor).

The above video shows highlights of a test dive of the Exosuit in Vatica Bay, before heading to Antikythera.

We’re hoping for good weather, to enable the Exosuit to arrive in Antikythera on Monday.

Mr Panos Laskaridis of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation was the diver in the Exosuit for the trial.

Here’s an edited video, providing detailed insight into how Sirius, the underwater robot, aka. Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics was used in September 2014 to produce very high resolution 3D digital maps of the Antikythera shipwreck.

This will provide a blueprint upon where all future finds and work will be plotted.

Enjoy!

There was a private sponsor event in Kythera on Friday, October 3rd.

Presentations from this event were streamed live and an archived version will be available soon.

The live stream was brought to you by OTE and COSMOTE via their advanced telecommunications network.

The diving team really came through today, even though working in difficult sea conditions. Alexander Sotiriou & Phil Short were joined by Evan Kovacs taking 4K video and Brett Seymour shooting still photographs.

Brett Seymour & Evan Kovaks preparing to dive

Archaeologists Dr. Theotokis Theodoulou & Dr. Brendan Foley discussing strategy.

Hellenic Navy seals (O.Y.K) are now an important part of the team.

A navy helicopter is on standby, in case of emergency. Here Manolis reviews procedures and calls to confirm that we will be diving.

Exosuit is in Kythera, ready for good weather to travel to Antikythera, the final leg of its journey.

The Hellenic Navy is helping a lot, with navy seals (O.Y.K) already working alongside divers, videographers, photographers and archaeologists. The project now has two diving vessels in the region, a rigid inflatable (RIB) chase boat from the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, GLAROS is due back soon, plus HN THETIS from the navy. Pretty much a dream team.