October 2, 2015

Antikythera Shipwreck Exhibition Travels To Switzerland

The exhibition of the Antikythera Shipwreck will be transferred in Switzerland the autumn of 2015, after the huge success, raising sharply the traffic of the National Archaeological Museum.

The successful periodic exhibition will be presented in Basel and most exhibits will be transfered by road. Among the exhibits will not be the unique but fragile Mechanism, while still it has not been decided whether the equally brittle bronze Adolescent of Antikythera, will be making the trip to Switzerland.

“…Discovered in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera around the turn of the 20th century. This 2000 year old device has often been touted as the world’s first scientific calculator. With dozens of gears it can precisely measure the position of the sun, moon, and planets simply by inputting a date. Although there is debate over its exact use it certainly shows that even 2000 years ago civilization was already accomplishing amazingly advanced feats of mechanical engineering…”

The recovery of the shipwreck itself was the first major underwater archaeological expedition. It was undertaken by sponge divers, with the assistance of the Greek Royal Navy (1900-1901). Correspondence, press, photographs and films will document the story of its discovery and recovery and the methods used. The second underwater research was carried out in 1976 by the Greek Archaeological service and J.-Y. Cousteau’s oceonographic “Calypso”. The wreck is dated aproximately in 60-50 BC, though its cargo from the 4th to the 1st century BC.

In the exhibition in Basel, 323 ancient pieces from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum will be presented. In addition, 42 coins from the Nomismatic Museum, two bronze statues of the Z “Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, part of the wooden hull of the ship, as well as some newer findings of the wreck as a lead anchor pulled up in 2012, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Underwater Antiquities will be also be presented.

Source: http://www.ellines.com

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