The marble head of an ancient Hercules statue has been recovered from the world-famous Antikythera shipwreck.
The ship carrying the Antikythera mechanism — an ancient Greek astronomical calculator containing a sophisticated gear system — is believed to have sunk in the Aegean Sea during the Roman era over 2,000 years ago, according to Newsweek. Sponge divers discovered the wreck in 1900 off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera and it has since been the site of exploration for many underwater archeologists. The most recent exploration mission produced the marble head of the demigod Hercules.
"In 1900 [sponge divers] pulled out the statue of Hercules and now in all probability we've found its head," said professor Lorenz Baumer, the classical archaeologist who is overseeing the underwater mission with the University of Geneva, according to the Guardian.
"It's a most impressive marble piece," he continued, "It is twice lifesize, has a big beard, a very particular face, and short hair. There is no doubt it is Hercules."
Newsweek noted the bearded statue head strongly resembles the way Hercules was depicted in another statue, the Farnese Hercules, which led the archeologists to believe the head recovered recently from the Antikythera site "probably" belongs to a headless statue on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which, as Baumer explained, was excavated in 1900.
The sculpture was discovered along with the plinth of another marble statue, human teeth, and parts of the ship's equipment. The team of researchers explained the discovery was made possible after removing three 8.5-ton boulders, which gave them access to "a formerly unexplored part of the shipwreck."
"It's so deep, they can only be down there for 30 minutes," Baumer said. "But now we have an idea of what has been hiding under those rocks … each find helps us piece together more context in our understanding of the ship, its cargo, the crew, and where they were from."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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