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With
help from Herodotus and an Aegean Sea octopus, a Canadian-led
scientific expedition appears to have discovered the site of a
turning point in world history: The sinking of a massive
Imperial Persian invasion fleet in a fierce storm that saved
Greece at the dawn of western civilization.
During an October dive off the country's northeast coast near
Mount Athos -- a site pinpointed by the ancient Greek historian
Herodotus -- archeologists retrieved ship storage jars dating
from the fifth century BC and the metal butt of a spear that
matches those carried by Persian warriors.
The researchers also learned of an earlier find in the same
waters by a local fisherman that clinches the significance of
the site: Two bronze battle helmets that the Persians would have
worn at the time of the world's first great clash between East
and West.
Project co-leader Shelley Wachsmann, the Regina-born marine
archeologist who earlier excavated a Sea of Galilee fishing
vessel dubbed the "Jesus Boat," says the foiled
Persian attack of 492 BC ranks "among the greatest maritime
ventures of the ancient world, both in terms of the scale of the
operations and the historical outcome to Greece in particular
and western civilization in general. "
The discovery of the artifacts, along with sonar scans revealing
a "target-rich" field of debris on the rocky floor of
the Aegean Sea, is fuelling excitement that remnants of the
Persian warships might be raised during the next search this
summer. "This opens up a whole new world," said
Wachsmann, now a professor with Texas A&M University.
"We've got what appears to be a shipwreck that sank above
the rocks and is now buried in sediment."
Stefanie Kennell, an antiquities expert from Toronto and
director of the Canadian Archaeological Institute at Athens,
helped assemble the international team of scholars searching for
the sunken fleet. She says the project is shedding light on
"one of those crucial moments in western history. For the
Greeks, this was a seminal event in their national
consciousness, something they never forgot."
The destruction of the Persian armada is recorded in the
writings of Herodotus, who was born around 484 BC and is widely
known as the "father of history." In fact, his
2,500-year-old chronicle of the Greco-Persian wars gave the
Canadian-led team its key clue as to the whereabouts of the
sunken armada.
Wachsmann proposed a search for traces of the lost Persian
armada in late 2002. The CAIA, a network of Canadian scholars
that oversees all of the country's archeological research in
Greece, scrambled to give its support to the project in time for
2003 field research.
Greek archeologists, including project co-leader Katerina
Dellaporta, embraced the proposal. Soon after, news broke that a
fishing net had snagged two ancient helmets in the waters off
Mount Athos. "That came as a surprise to everyone,"
recalls Kennell. "I saw this on the news and called
Shelley. It was all very exciting. We knew these helmets could
have been part of the armada."
The fisherman led scientists back to the site of his find. Using
a submersible craft, Wachsmann and his colleagues discovered an
ancient storage jar -- probably used to transport oil or wine
for the Persian forces -- and another, much younger vessel. That
jar, says Wachsmann, was "apparently the home of an
acquisitive octopus, which had drawn into the jar mouth a
potpourri of seabed detritus, including a pyramidal bronze
weapon point with part of its wooden shaft still lodged in its
socket."
The tapered bronze spike -- known as a sauroter or "lizard
killer" -- would have balanced the spearhead and served as
a secondary stabber in close battle. "The discovery of this
rarely found artifact at the location where the helmets had been
raised suggests that a warship sank in this area,"
Wachsmann concludes.
It was at another site, near Arapis Island, where the team found
a dozen more clay storage jars or amphora. The ship carrying
them had apparently sunk on a steep slope, the jars rolling down
to where they became lodged in some rocks.
"We could find no evidence of the wreck itself," says
Wachsmann, "and believe it is entirely buried by sediment.
This suggests that organic elements of the ship and its cargo
may be well preserved."
Source
: Star Phoenix
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