Searching for Ancient Shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea: the Discovery of Chios and Kythnos Hellenistic Wrecks with the Use of Marine Geological‐Geophysical Methods

Abstract

This paper presents the results of two deep‐water archaeological surveys recently conducted in the Aegean Sea, and the advantages of using conventional marine geological techniques in deep‐water archaeology. Two Hellenistic wrecks were discovered: one in the Chios‐Oinousses strait at 70 m, was a concentration of over 400 amphoras in a 1.5‐m‐high, high‐backscattering, morphological high; the second, west of Kythnos island, at 495 m, consisted of a few amphoras scattered in a 20 × 20‐m‐wide area. Side‐scan sonar was integrated with high‐resolution sub‐bottom profiling, and the integration of the two data‐sets proved to contribute significantly to realistic interpretation of the sonar targets.

© 2007 The Authors

Key words:

• side‐scan sonar
• sub‐bottom profiling
• geological interpretation
• ancient wrecks
• amphora concentration
• sedimentation rate

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly acknowledge the officers and the crew of R/V Aegaeo for their valuable contribution to the success of the research cruises CHIOS‐2004 and KYTHNOS‐2005. Our thanks go also to our colleagues and friends P. Mantopoulos and I. Pampidis, engineers and operators of the geophysical equipment used during the survey. Last but not least we thank K. Katsaros, pilot, Th. Fotopoulos, engineer and V. Stasinos, diver, all friends and colleagues, for the operation of the submersible Thetis and their assistance in the operation of ROV Super Achilles.