Posted by moodhacker on June 9, 2017 at 8:20 AM
The recent underwater excavations carried out off the island of Delos in the Cyclades, brought to the fore ancient coastal structures, a port and shipwrecks, the Greek Culture Ministry officially announced end of May 2017, cocnluding a series of underwater excavations around the island.
According to the official Ministry's announcement , the finds “confirm that Delos was an important trade hub and a significant maritime trade route through the ages, linking the Eastern and Western Mediterranean.”
The Unique cosmopolitan Antiquity next to today's cosmopolitan Mykonos
It’s no wonder that Delos often becomes the center of archaeology’s interest due to its rich and long history and is now considered one of the most significant islands worldwide from the archaeological and cultural point of view.
Delos is found only few minutes away from today's cosmopolitan Mykonos, by its exceptionally extensive and rich archaeological site that ,conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port.
According to the official tourism website for Greece, “nowhere else in the Globe is there a natural insular archaeological site of this size and importance. No other island on Earth hosts so many monumental antiquities from the Archaic, the Classical, and the Hellenistic periods, i.e. the centuries of the great Greek art, on a territory used exclusively as an archaeological site.”
International excavation team and the latest findings
Carried out by the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities in collaboration with the French Archaeological School and the National Hellenic Research Foundation, the excavations which took place between May 2 and May 20.
The team from Greece’s Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities have investigated the area around the breakwater that protected a now sunken port on the island of Delos. The excavations impressively revealed that Delos was located along an ancient maritime trade route linking the eastern and western Mediterranean. The breakwater, which measured around 520 feet long and 130 feet wide, was built of unshaped rocks underwater and large granite blocks above water in order to shield the island’s central port from strong northwestern winds.
The ministry’s announcement also mentioned that the date of the breakwater’s construction remains unknown and further archaeological and geological research will be conducted soon in order to learn more information about it.
The excavations also revealed other finds including ruins of walls, the remains of a later Hellenistic-era shipwreck carrying amphorae, as well as two more shipwrecks off the southern tip of Delos, in Fylladi Bay.
The team discovered a fallen colonnade and three shipwrecks, including a Hellenistic ship that had been carrying oil and wine from Italy. Two shipwrecks found during a previous expedition were mapped and photographed. All of these shipwrecks date to the peak of the community’s prosperity, between the end of the second century and the first century B.C
“Research results aid us in completing the archaeological and historic picture of Delos, further reinforcing the need to continue with the systematic underwater exploration of the island.” the announcement said .
According to Greek mythology the islet of Delos was a holy sanctuary and the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.
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