The first human remains have been discovered amidst the debris of a well-known Greek shipwreck. According to a news release issued by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the skeleton was found on August 31, 2016 at the site of the Antikythera Shipwreck which has been dated to about 65 B.C.
As the release states, “...the team excavated and recovered a human skull including a jaw and teeth, long bones of the arms and legs, ribs, and other remains.” Dr. Hannes Schroeder, an expert who has seen the evidence, is quoted as saying, “Against all odds, the bones survived over 2,000 years at the bottom of the sea and they appear to be in fairly good condition, which is incredible.”
One of the next phases of the excavation involves retrieving bones that remain buried in the seafloor. The eventual hope is that enough DNA can be extracted from the material to provide information about the victim and, from a broader perspective, learn about people from that era.
The Antikythera Shipwreck is suspected of being the remnants of a grain-carrying ship found initially by divers around a Greek island in 1900.
