The 2,200-year-old lion statue found in ancient Assos on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
In Turkey during archaeological excavations in the ancient Greek town of Assos on the Anatolian shore, 2,200-year-old statue of a lion from the Hellenist Age and an Early Byzantine oven were found.
Assos, in the Ayvacik District, Canakkale Province, in Northwest Turkey, right across from the large Greek island of Lesbos, was a major Ancient Greek city-state, and a major Antiquity port.
It was also called “Apollonia”, after god Apollo, not unlike the predecessor of Bulgaria’s Black Sea town of Sozopol, the Ancient Greek colony of Apollonia Pontica.
The sculpture of the lion from the 2nd century BC was discovered in excavations of a complex in ancient Assos which used to be an inn during the Hellenistic period, says lead archaeologist Nurettin Arslan, reports Hurriyet Daily News citing Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
Excavations in Assos were also carried in agoras, or ancient city centers of Byzantine structures added Arslan, who is a professor heading the archeology department at Onsekiz Mart University in Canakkale.
Another intriguing discovery is a 1,500-year-old stone oven dating back to the early period of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) also unearthed during the excavations in the area.
“One of the structures contained a find which was used at that time as a cooking stove with three pots,” Arslan reveals, adding that the well-preserved stove shines a light on the daily life of the Byzantine era.
The ruins of the Temple of Athena in Assos, with the Greek island of Lesbos visible in the background.
The current excavations in the ancient city of Assos in Northwest Turkey began in July 2019, with a team of 25 people, and are set to be completed in October.
Turkish archeologists have been carrying out uninterrupted excavations in the Ancient Greek and medieval Byzantine city since 1981.
Assos was first studied after American researchers back in the 1800s.
Situated on a rocky hill overlooking the Aegean Sea, 17 kilometers south of Ayvacik, ancient Assos was accepted to the UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage back in April 2017.
Strange moments in Edinburgh’s history: The mystery of the miniature coffins found at Arthur’s Seat
It was a group of boys out hunting for rabbits who found the coffins one summer’s day in 1836.
They were roaming a rocky peak known as Arthur’s Seat that overlooks Edinburgh, Scotland, when their attention was caught by a small cave, its entrance carefully covered with pieces of slate. After pulling back the slabs of stone, the boys found 17 coffins, each about 3.7 inches long, arranged in three tiers—two rows of eight, and a solitary coffin at the start of a third row.
Inside each was a small wooden doll, its face carved with wide-open eyes, dressed in plain cotton clothes that covered the thin body from bare head to flat feet. The question of who carved the figures and coffins—and why—has been a mystery ever since. Were the objects tools of witchcraft, part of a pagan ritual, or a memorial to one of the era’s most notorious killing sprees?
A STRANGE DISCOVERY
The Scotsman was the first to report on the discovery, on July 16, 1836, noting that the “Lilliputian coffins” were all “decently ‘laid out’ with a mimic representation of all the funeral trappings which usually form the last habiliments of the dead.”
Stranger still, it seemed “evident that the depositions must have been made singly, and at considerable intervals—facts indicated by the rotten and decayed state of the first tier of coffins and their wooden mummies [… while] the coffin last placed, and its shrouded tenant, are as clean and fresh as if only a few days had elapsed since their entombment.”
From the beginning, theories swirled around the discovery of the so-called “fairy coffins,” with some declaring them ritualistic offerings, and others describing them as creepy child’s playthings.
The Scotsman wrote, “Our own opinion would be, had we not some years ago abjured witchcraft and demonology, that there are still some of the weird sisters hovering about Mushat’s Cairn or the Windy Gowl, who retain their ancient power to work the spells of death by entombing the likenesses of those they wish to destroy.” Indeed, the moody Arthur’s Seat has long drawn tales of witches casting spells on its volcanic hill; Edinburgh’s dark history includes an estimated 300 people sentenced for witchcraft, with more burned there in the 16th century than anywhere else in Scotland.
Nor are witches the only aspects of folklore to be mentioned in connection with the coffins. Later in 1836, the Edinburgh Evening Post posited that the coffins might be related to an “ancient custom which prevailed in Saxony, of burying in effigy departed friends who had died in a distant land.” The Caledonian Mercury chimed in, saying that they had “also heard of another superstition which exists among some sailors in this country, that they enjoined their wives on parting to give them ‘Christian burial’ in an effigy if they happened [to be lost at sea].”
Yet as George Dalgleish, keeper of Scottish history and archaeology at National Museums Scotland, says in a 2015 video, there’s little evidence of such ceremonial burial practices in Scotland. And if a doll were created for witchcraft purposes, he notes, it’s likely it would have been mutilated or destroyed rather than carefully bundled in stitched cotton clothing and hidden within a cave.
In the 1990s, a new theory emerged—linked to one of the darkest chapters in Edinburgh’s history.
“ATROCIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES”
Scottish doctor Robert Knox
In the early 19th century, Edinburgh was home to a thriving underground trade in dead bodies. The buyers were medical students and their teachers, who required the corpses for training and study but who were legally limited to a small number of executed convicts for their supply.
William Burke and William Hare saw an opportunity. Their gruesome business plan was sparked when, in 1827, one of the lodgers at Hare’s boarding house died suddenly while still owing £4 in rent, and they sold his remains to anatomist Dr. Robert Knox for 7 pounds 10 shillings (about $820 today). Rather than waiting for more spontaneous deaths, the pair turned to murder, targeting travelers and downtrodden characters whose disappearance was not likely to be noticed.
After making a small fortune from the sale of their victims to Dr. Knox, they were caught when a lodger discovered a body in a pile of straw. Hare turned king’s evidence on Burke, agreeing to testify against his fellow murderer for immunity. Burke was hanged, dissected as punishment, and his skin bound into a book.
But what do these infamous murders have to do with the enigmatic coffins? As author Mike Dash notes for Smithsonian.com, the link was first proposed by two visiting fellows at the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh—Professor Samuel Menefee and Dr. Allen Simpson, a curator at National Museums Scotland.
The pair examined the construction of the coffins and concluded that they had all been deposited in the 1830s. They also noted that the 17 coffins found in the cave match the number of Burke and Hare victims (including the first, who died a natural death).
As to why someone would create such a strange tribute to the murders, the answer may be tied to the belief in the need for a complete body on Resurrection Day. This is part of the reason dissection was often used as a punishment for criminals.
Menefee and Simpson theorized that perhaps the coffins were crafted to return corporeality, or at least some symbolic dignity, to the dissected victims. As they write, “it would not be unreasonable for some person or person, in the absence of the 17 dissected bodies, to wish to propitiate these dead, the majority of whom were murdered in atrocious circumstances, by a form of burial to set their spirits at rest.”
National Museums Scotland
NATIONAL MUSEUMS SCOTLAND
Of course, correlation does not imply causation, and there are many holes to be poked in the Burke and Hare theory. For one thing, all the wooden bodies were dressed in men’s clothing, but the pair’s victims were mostly women. Furthermore, the eyes of the figures are open, not closed like a corpse. Some have even speculated that Burke himself made the coffins, as their woodworking and tin decorations suggest the hand of a shoemaker—Burke’s profession when he was not suffocating Hare’s guests.
Eight of the coffins have been on display almost continuously at Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland since 1901. (As to what became of the nine other coffins, the Scotsman wrote in their initial report that “a number were destroyed by the boys pelting them at each other as unmeaning and contemptible trifles.”)
David S. Forsyth, the principal curator of Renaissance and early modern history at National Museums Scotland, says the coffins still draw comments from museum-goers. “It’s the mystery behind them that makes them so compellingly intriguing, no one can solely own their story,” he tells Mental Floss. “They can be linked to the more intangible aspects of our culture and history, or to real episodes such as Burke and Hare.”
In December 2014, there was a curious twist in the case. A box was delivered to the museum with no return address. Inside was a detailed replica of the coffins found in 1836, down to the metal details on the lid and the roughly carved face of its figure. A note included with the object cryptically began “XVIII?,” suggesting this was an 18th addition to the group, and quoted Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story “The Body Snatcher” (1884), itself inspired by Burke and Hare.
The handwritten text declared the miniature coffin a “gift” to the National Museum of Scotland, “for caring for our nation’s treasures.” Especially the eight that cannot be explained.
Moment horrified sailor finds mummified remains of German adventurer on stricken yacht
On a yacht floating off the Philippines, fishermen have discovered the mummified body of a German sailor.
After two people made the discovery, the police were investigating. Officers discovered that the dead person is Manfred Fritz Bajorat, aged 59, from identity documents found on the ship.
Manfred Fritz Bajorat’s body was recovered inside a drifting yacht in the seas off Barobo. Fishermen found his corpse inside the radio room of the yacht.
The deputy police chief of the near-by Barabo city, Inspector Mark Navales, said that although it was unclear how Bajorat’s death was caused there were no signs of foul play.
“It is still a mystery to us,” said Navales.
Bajorat’s body was found seated at a desk in the radio room, slumped over on his right arm “like he was sleeping”, said Navales.
The body of Manfred Fritz Bajorat found inside the boat
His exact time of death had not yet been determined. The yacht was found in the Philippine Sea about 100km (60 miles) from Barabo.
Bajorat had reportedly been sailing the world on his yacht, Sayo, for the past 20 years.
Reports said he had not been sighted since 2009. But a friend told the media that he had heard from the mariner in 2015 via Facebook.
Authorities were attempting to contact his friends and family in Germany in the hope they would be able to shed light on his movements.
The police investigation found no obvious signs of violence but could not determine the cause of death.
Navales said items inside the yacht were scattered and Bajorat’s wallet was not found but the yacht’s radio, GPS and other valuable items were still there.
Dr. Mark Benecke, a forensic criminologist in the German city of Cologne, told the Bild newspaper: “The way he is sitting seems to indicate that death was unexpected, perhaps from a heart attack.”
Reports suggested that dry ocean winds, hot temperatures, and the salty air helped preserve his body.
The Katskhi Pillar – the Most Incredible Cliff Church in the World
It is not unusual to listen to tales of people who have lived a solemn life away from the world, whenever these stories are reported, people are fascinated and awestruck.
This idea is far from our normal life to most of us. This was the case when the news broke out of a monk alone living on a giant rock in Georgia.
Katskhi, the small town of the Katshkipillar – an enormous natural limestone column that rises 130 feet into the air – is located in the west-georgian area of Imereti.
Perched on the top is a church and three hermit cells, accessible only by climbing a precarious steel ladder. The rock was used by Stylites from at least the 9th century up until the Ottoman invasion in the 15th century.
The Stylites are a group of Christian ascetics who chose to follow the example of Saint Simeon Stylites the Elder, spending their days living in solitude on top of pillars in order to become spiritually closer to God.
In 1993, the Stylite tradition at Katskhi was revived by a monk named Maxime Qavtaradze.
Man’s monastery near the village of Katskhi, Imereti, Georgia
After being abandoned and shrouded in the legend for 500 years, the rock was scaled in 1944 by a Georgian mountaineer named Alexander Japaridze.
Upon reaching the top, Japaridze found the dilapidated remains of an old church as well as the centuries-old bones of the last Christian ascetic who resided there, reports the Daily Mail.
Climbers also came across a slew of other structures, including a wine cellar, a curtain wall, a stone crypt, and three hermit cells. The church was built to honor Maximus the Confessor, a famous Christian monk and theologian.
St. Maximus the Confessor’s church is located in the southeast sector of the pillar. The structure is fairly small, measuring just 12 x 15 feet.
When excavations were carried out, the group also uncovered eight large containers known as kvevris which are used to hold traditional Georgian wine.
“The Stairway to Heaven”. It takes about 20 minutes to climb it!
In a subsequent ascent up the rock in 2006, the presence of the kvevris along with the construction of a wine cellar provided researchers with enough evidence to conclude that extreme asceticism was a common practice for those who resided there long ago.
This would make it the third time in recent history that the rock has been examined by experts hoping to uncover more about its history.
At present, the rock is inhabited by Maxime Qavtaradze, a middle-aged monk who made the abandoned spiritual dwelling his home in 1993.
In a rare interview in 2013, Qavtaradze told photographer Amos Chapple that making the decision to live at Katshki Pillar was borne from a much-needed change in his personal life.
He explained that after being released from jail on drug-related charges, he felt that the best way to connect with God and purge himself of evil was to meditate upon the Kayshki Pillar, reports CNN.
Monolithic limestone natural rock formation known as Katskhi Pillar with a monk’s cell on the top, in Georgia.
“It is up here in the silence that you can feel God’s presence,” he claims. For him, living in isolation is the right way to establish a genuine, uninterrupted connection with God.
That said, he does come down the mountain periodically to pray together with men who live in the monastery at the bottom of the pillar — a climb that takes him around 20 minutes, according to the Daily Mail.
Inside the chapel
His efforts are supported by the men in the monastery, who send him food and other supplies via a winch.
Maxime has no regrets about deciding to live his life in borderline isolation. Although climbing a 130-foot ladder does pose its challenges to Maxime’s middle-aged frame, he told Chapple that he’ll continue to make the journey until his body gives up.
The well that turns objects to STONE: Mysterious site in Yorkshire is rumored to be cursed by the Devil
A weird phenomenon takes place in Knaresborough city of North Yorkshire, England. It houses a petrifying well that can make items into stone tremendously. Every year, millions of tourists come to this rather curious attraction.
The petrifying well was mentioned by John Leyland in 1538, an ancient to King Henry VIII, according to the Amusing Planet.
Leyland noted that the well was said by locals to have magical properties and healing powers, which he reported in his writings. This marked the beginning of legends that would surround the petrifying well for a long time.
The petrifying well is located inside a cave known as Mother Shipton’s Cave. The name of the cave comes from a local woman believed to be a witch, Ursula Southeil, whom the locals referred to as Mother Shipton.
Amusing Planet reports that according to the legends, Mother Shipton — the daughter of a prostitute and the devil — was born in the cave. While she was supposed to have been hideous due to who her father was, she gained fame as a prophetess.
Mother Shipton’s Cave.
Mother Shipton is believed to have predicted several events such as the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588, the Great Fire of London of 1666, and even the invention of cellphones!
While the story of Mother Shipton gave the petrifying well a terrifying reputation, it also enjoyed a more flattering legend.
Mother Shipton in Knaresborough.
As John Leyland reported, the well was believed to have magic healing powers and would be visited by locals because of these reputed curing abilities.
According to Oddity Central, a physician examined the petrifying well in the early 1600s.
The results of his findings led him to conclude that the waters running through the well were a miracle cure for any type of sickness. With this kind of reputation, the petrifying well became an ever-growing popular attraction.
The Petrifying Well at the Matlock Bath Aquarium with objects that have been coated by minerals from the water.
But the most interesting feat of this well is its capacity to transform objects into stone. Contrary to the legends surrounding Mother Shipton or the healing powers of the well, this feat was all-natural, even if it was believed to be part of the magic of the well for a long time.
According to Force To Know, the petrification of an object in this well happens because of high levels of mineral content in the water.
Through a process of evaporation and deposition over time, objects appear to turn into stone, as they are covered by solidified minerals.
That process was for a time attributed to Mother Shipton as one of her magic tricks. Because of her reputation of being a witch, she was supposed to turn objects into stone herself.
The terrifying aspect of the well is reinforced by the fact that when viewed from the side, the cave looks like a giant skull. Locals and visitors perpetuated these frightening legends, but the stories only increased people’s curiosity.
Everyday objects have been hung in the water of the Petrifying Well, slowly being covered by minerals. The Petrifying Well is the oldest tourist site in the UK.
When the Royal Forest was sold by King Charles I to Sir Charles Slingsby in 1630, the cave was well known, with many people wanting to witness this strange petrifying process for themselves.
The new owner decided to profit from it by selling guided tours to the visitors coming onto his land. By doing so, Slingsby had just created England’s first-ever tourist attraction.
Today, the well is known to have no magic powers but is still visited by millions of tourists yearly because of its capacity to apparently petrify objects.
The magic properties attributed to the petrifying well of Knaresborough may have been proven wrong, but this curious location still holds a strong ability to attract visitors
The mystery of the Octavius: An 18th-century ghost ship was discovered with the captain’s body found frozen at his desk, still holding his pen
The world has an array of tales, mysteries, and legends and we are traveling on a different dimension when reading or listening to them. Those stories are thoughtful for everyone who loves a good mystery, and the story about the ship Octavius is very fascinating.
There are a great number of tales in maritime tradition, about ghost ships sailing with the world’s ghostly crew and destined never to make port.
It’s the story of a mysterious disappearance, and a captain, a frozen body, still seated behind his desk and a crew that suffered the same fate. Some people say that this is not a simple legend.
It was October 11, 1775, when the whaler ship Herald stumbled upon a rather strange looking schooner. The crew of Herald thought it probably that the badly weather-beaten boat was drifting, and decided to give it a closer inspection.
On nearing the ship, the crew saw that the ship was weather-beaten–the sails were tattered and torn and hanging limply on the masts. They boarded the drifting Octavius, and there they discovered the reason why there was no activity on deck!
But to understand, we must travel back to 1761, when the journey for Octavius began, fourteen years before she was found by the Herald. Leaving the port of London, the 28 sailors began their journey towards China….
This was a majestic sailing ship, that left port with a full crew, and they arrived safely in China, where unloaded their cargo.
The weather was unusually warm, and it seems that the captain decided to sail home via the Northwest Passage, travel that at the time had not been accomplished. This was the last that anyone heard of the vessel, her crew, or her cargo. And so, Octavius was declared lost.
Fast forward to 1775, when Herald’s crew makes it’s way slowly through the strange, creepy and quiet ship. Below deck, they discovered the 28 sailors, frozen stiff, motionless and blue. And when they reached the Captain’s office, they found him behind his desk, also frozen.
The inkwell and other everyday items were still in their place on the desk. Turning around, they saw a woman wrapped in a blanket on the bunk, frozen to death, along with the body of a young boy.
According to the legend, the captain was still holding his pen as if he was frozen instantly. Herald’s crew reported that the whole crew had the same characteristic, and they were like models in a waxworks museum.
When the Octavius began its journey in 1761, the Captain carefully wrote the date in his logbook, a document that was found on his desk 14 years later (but the last entry in it was from 1762).
The thirteen years between 1762 and 1775 were nowhere to be found! With the realization that they are on board a ghost ship, the men left Octavius and joined the rest of their crew back on board the Herald. According to those who believe that this story is real, it was the Captain’s fault that they all froze to death.
According to this version of the story, the captain of Octavius decided to do a mission impossible: go through the notorious Northwest Passage, and it was this decision that killed all people on board. But, of course, this story was born almost 250 years ago and all traces of it, in reality, are lost over.
Two and a half centuries is a long period, in which stories change and are embellished with other, different details. According to one version, the Octavius got stuck into the ice for two and a half months, and it wasn’t long before they ran out of supplies and froze to death.
But why the captain was still behind his desk with a pen in hand? Furthermore, according to the legend, Octavius did manage to get through the Northwest Passage, but only when was already a ghost ship. The ship’s last recorded position was 75N 160W, which placed the Octavius 250 miles north of Barrow, Alaska.
It took more than a century before another attempt to crossing this passage was made with a ship, but this time successfully. And for hundreds of years, this story survived until became a legend, drifting, just like Octavius and no one knows what really happened, but especially, what is the reason that can freeze a man half-way through his writing, still with the pen in hand!
The crew of the Herald were frightened of the Octavius and feared that it was cursed, so they simply left it adrift. To this day, it has never been sighted again.
Ancient footprints show Neanderthals may have been taller than thought
We know it as archeologists have seen hundreds of Neanderthals footprints in France — most of them laid by children. They walked and maybe played along the beach in the prehistoric world ;
Do we discover that Neanderthals were more like modern humans than previously thought by following their footsteps? Have we been underestimated our ancient cousins?
The 257 footprints from Neanderthal found by archaeologists from Le Rozel, on the coast of northwest France, Manche, Normandy, and what is surprising to the scientists is that the majority of the prints are made by children.
The excavation of a footprint on the Le Rozel archeological site
In 1856, in a limestone quarry in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany, a set of ancient bones were discovered including an oval-shaped skull with a low, receding forehead and distinct brow ridges.
Scientists initially believed belonged to a deformed human but after several weeks the penny dropped that they had discovered an early human ancestor and that species was named Homo neanderthalensis.
Neanderthal ancestors left Africa before modern humans, as far back as 500,000 years ago, and they were in Europe when our ancestors walked the same journey about 70,000 years ago.
It is thought Neanderthals eventually disappeared around 40,000 years ago. But now, archaeologists in Le Rozel, on the coast of northwest France, in the department of Manche, Normandy, have discovered 257 footprints from Neanderthals and what surprises the scientists is that most of the prints were made by children.
Footprints of A Lost Species
This year, a scientific paper was published in Quaternary Science Reviews explaining that previous to Le Rozel, only one set of 62,000-year-old Neanderthal footprints had ever been found, in Romania.
Then, in 2018, an array of fossilized footprints was discovered in an ancient sand dune in Gibraltar, of the Iberian Peninsula, which was thought to have been left by one of the “last Neanderthals ever to walk the Earth.”
Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) footprint in the Natural History Museum in Prague.
Coastal erosion first exposed Le Rozel in France in 1967 and the site has been excavated every three months since 2012. The discovery of these “extremely rare footprints” is by far the largest group of hominin fossil footprints found to date. And while some of the footprints were found in isolated patches, some were found in a walking sequence, with one footprint after another.
The new paper, published in PNAS by Dr. Jérémy Duveau of the Museum of National History in Paris and colleagues, says that no hominin species other than Neanderthals are known to have been living in the area of Le Rozel at the time.
This was supported by the types of stone tools they recovered which according to the paper were “typical of Neanderthals of the time”. The scientists concluded that this particular group contained at least four Neanderthals, but more likely up to 13, to count for all the footprints.
Were Neanderthals Taller Than We Think?
The researchers say the first and foremost indicator that these prints were Neanderthal was the shape of the foot, which is flatter and “less gracile” than ours. Of the 257 recorded footprints, 88 were complete and ranged from 11.4 to 28.7 centimeters (4.5 to 11.3 inches) in length, indicating the Neanderthals ranged from 74 centimeters in height (2 feet, 5 inches tall) to 185 centimeters (6 feet, 1 inch) – children and adults.
The partial skeleton of a Neanderthal child.
The scientists found the average height within this group of Neanderthals was 175 centimeters, (5 feet, 7 inches) compared with modern Homo sapiens averaging about 5 feet, 9 inches. These measurements, according to a report in New Scientist, match the average height of a man in the USA today suggesting Neanderthals could have been “taller than previous evidence suggests.”
Crabs on A Beach Leave Many Prints
The measured sizes of the footprints established that “more than half the occupants were shorter than 130 centimeters (4 feet, 3 inches) tall” suggesting that between 80 to 90 percent of the individuals were children, with a 2-year-old’s print measuring only 11.4 centimeters (4.5 inches) in length.
However, caution must be extended to the suggested group size of 13 based on the footprint count for, as any of you that have children will know, when left to their own devices, they can be like beach crabs tootling to-and-fro with the tide.
In practice, one child leaves many prints for everyone left by an adult, but accounting for this and other variables, the team of researchers believe their conclusion that children made up most of the group “is reasonable”.
These new results were compared to another Neanderthal group that had lived in the El Sidrón cave system in northern Spain in Normandy about 48,000 years ago, where researchers conducted mitochondrial genetic analysis and found seven adults, three adolescents, two children, and one infant—which is clearly a far higher proportion of adults to children.
The Ancient Underwater 5,000- Year-Old Sunken City in Greece is considered to be the Oldest Submerged Lost City in the World.
Pavlopetri is about 5 000 years old and one of the oldest populated city (oldest in Mediterranean sea). It is situated on the southern shore of Laconia, in Peloponnese, Greece.
The name Pavlopetri (“Paul’s and Peter’s”, or “Paul’s stone”) is the modern name for the islet and beach, apparently named for the two Christian saints that are celebrated together; the ancient name or names are unknown.
Discovered in 1967 by Nicholas Flemming and mapped in 1968 by a team of archaeologists from Cambridge, Pavlopetri is located between the Pavlopetri islet across the Elafonisos village and the Pounta coast.
The coast, the archaeological site as well as the islet and the surrounding sea area are within the region of the Elafonisos Municipality, the old “Onou Gnathos” peninsula (according to Pausanias).
It is unique in having an almost complete town plan, including streets, buildings, and tombs.
Originally, the ruins were dated to the Mycenaean period, 1600–1100 BC but later studies showed an older occupation date starting no later than 2800 BC, so it also includes early Bronze Age middle Minoan and transitional material.
It is now believed that the town was submerged around 1000 BC by the first of three earthquakes that the area suffered. The area never re-emerged, so it was neither built-over nor disrupted by agriculture.
Although eroded over the centuries, the town layout is as it was thousands of years ago. The site is under threat of damage by boats dragging anchors, as well as by tourists and souvenir hunters.
Overview of Pavlopetri.
The fieldwork of 2009 was largely to map the site. It is the first submerged town digitally surveyed in three dimensions.
Sonar mapping techniques developed by military and oil prospecting organizations have aided recent work.
The city has at least 15 buildings submerged in 3 to 4 meters (9.8–13.1 ft) of water. The newest discoveries in 2009 alone cover 9,000 m2 (2.2 acres).
Position of Pavlopetri.
As of October 2009, four more fieldwork sessions are planned, also in collaboration with the Greek government as a joint project. Those sessions will do excavations.
Also working alongside the archaeologists (from the University of Nottingham) are a team from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, who aim to take underwater archaeology into the 21st century.
They have developed several unique robots to survey the site in various ways.
One of the results of the survey was to establish that the town was the center of the thriving textile industry (from the many loom weights found in the site). Also, many large pitharis pots (from Crete) were excavated, also indicating a major trading port.
The work of the British/Australian archaeological team was assembled in an hour-long BBC documentary video, “City Beneath the Waves: Pavlopetri”, broadcast by BBC Two in 2011.
The city of Pavlopetri is part of the underwater cultural heritage as defined by the UNESCO in the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
All traces of human existence underwater which are one hundred years old or more are protected by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
This convention aims at preventing the destruction or loss of historic and cultural information and looting. It helps states parties to protect their underwater cultural heritage with an international legal framework.
