Divers have returned to the famed Antikythera shipwreck off the coast of Crete, a site that has yielded troves of ancient artifacts since its discovery in 1900. The latest expedition, led by the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece and conducted in May and June 2025, focused on retrieving rare structural pieces from the hull, CBS News reports. The team successfully recovered three outer planks joined to the ship's internal frame—a find first spotted in 2024 but only extracted this year. Researchers say these elm and oak fragments may date back as far as 235 BCE, offering new evidence about how ancient ships were built.
The construction method, in which the outer hull came together before the internal parts were built, harkens back to between the fourth and first century BCE. Besides the hull pieces, divers found fragments of a marble statue, including the base and part of a left leg, as well as a terracotta mortar likely used for food preparation. Some statue fragments remain trapped within the wreck. The team also uncovered several Chian amphorae—ancient jars for storage and transport—scattered across two parts of the site.
Exploration wasn't simple: the wreck sits at a depth of 140 to 170 feet, a range too deep for standard scuba diving but too shallow for remotely operated vehicles. The team used specialized closed-circuit rebreathers and real-time monitoring with underwater drones to ensure diver safety. The Antikythera shipwreck, believed to be a trading vessel from the first century BCE, has previously produced marble statues, jewelry, and human remains, along with the mysterious Antikythera mechanism, an astronomical device that inspired Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the Miami Herald reports. (Last year, a second shipwreck was found at the site.)
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