Well-preserved bones include a partial skull,
two arms, several ribs and two femurs.
By Hannah Osborne
A 2,000-year-old human skeleton has been
discovered in the ancient Greek shipwreck where the Antikythera mechanism was
discovered. The remains were found on 31 August near the Greek island of
Antikythera and include a partial skull, arm and leg bones and several ribs.
All remains appear to be from the same person and have been well-preserved.
The discovery was announced in the journal
Nature and scientists believe it will shed light on the mystery shipwreck. The
Antikythera mechanism has baffled scientists since it was first discovered. It
is thought to have used to track astronomical positions and eclipses, but it
also recently was found to have colour codes, the purpose of which are not
known.
Often described as the world's first computer,
nothing as technologically advanced as the astronomical device would be
invented for over 1,000 years, with the arrival of mechanical astronomical
clocks.
The Antikythera shipwreck was first discovered
in 1901. It was transporting luxury items from the eastern Mediterranean and
has yielded huge amounts of treasure and artefacts ever since.
The skeleton will help scientists understand
who would have been on board the ship. Initial examinations indicate the bones
belong to a young man. It is thought he could be a member of the 15-20 strong
crew that would have sailed on a ship that size. However, it is also possible
he could have been a passenger or slave – a reason people sometimes get stuck
in shipwrecks is if they are chained up.
"We think it was such a violent wrecking
event, people got trapped below decks. The crew would be able to get off
relatively fast. Those shackled would have no opportunity to escape," said
Mark Dunkley, an underwater archaeologist from Historic England. The bones were
surrounded by corroded iron objects.
The team now hopes to extract more DNA, which
could tell scientists about physical characteristics, such as hair and eye
colour, to their ancestry. For now, they have nicknamed the person who the
bones belonged to Pamphilos – a name that was scratched onto one of the wine
cups found at the wreck.
"We're thrilled," added Brendan
Foley, an underwater archaeologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
"We don't know of anything else like it. Archaeologists study the human
past through the objects our ancestors created. With the Antikythera Shipwreck,
we can now connect directly with this person who sailed and died aboard the
Antikythera ship."
Hannes Schroeder, an expert in ancient DNA
analysis from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, said: "Your mind
starts spinning. Who were those people who crossed the Mediterranean 2,000
years ago? Maybe one of them was the astronomer who owned the mechanism."
