In addition to the discovery of the demigod’s head, two human teeth have been found embedded in a solid mass with traces of copper.
A European team of archaeologists and divers have found a large piece of marble during an underwater archaeological investigation in the famous Antikythera shipwreck in the Aegean Sea, the Greek Ministry of Culture explained in a statement. It is a head that might belong to a headless statue of Hercules which is in Greece.
According to DWresearchers have identified the head as a Farnese-type Hercules and believe it might belong to the headless statue 5742 from the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, whose discovery occurred in the same shipwreck in the year 1900.
The discovery of the head of the demigod has not been the only surprise, as they have found two human teeth embedded in a solid mass with traces of copper, whose genetic material may be analyzed to determine the gender and characteristics of the person to whom they belonged.
They also found numerous objects belonging to the ship, such as bronze, iron, nails and other amorphous masses deformed by water and marine life whose secrets can only be traced through an X-ray.
For this project framed in the Five-Year Plan 2021-2025, in which Greek, Italian and Swiss scientists participated, it was necessary to remove some rocks that prevented work on the site.
Possible ‘head of Hercules’
All the pieces were transported to the facilities of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of Greece for their correct conservation.
The maritime area south of the Peloponnese has always been an area in which its great storms have caused hundreds of shipwrecks since ancient times, among which the Antikythera shipwreck stands out, the most important discovered to date.
Despite the many statues and other excavated archaeological objects, this wreck is famous for one complex artifact: the Antikythera Mechanism, discovered in the early 1900s by sponge collector divers.
This machine, built in the 1st century BC, is considered the oldest computer in the world due to its complicated gear system capable of predicting eclipses and other astronomical phenomena.
At first it was indecipherable due to the lack of a third of the device’s mechanisms, which were rebuilt by the University College London through X-rays and a mathematical method from Ancient Greece.