Egyptian statues, coins and jewelry among
treasures Lord Elgin's brig Mentor carried when the overladen ship sank off
Kythera.
By Philippe Bohstrom
A trove of
treasures, from ancient Egyptian statues to coins and amphorae with stamped
handles, has been found inside the wreck of the Mentor, one of the ships used
to transport the Parthenon marbles from Piraeus to England. The overburdened
frigate sank in 1802 southwest of the island of Kythera. Even 200 years of
depredation by looters failed to find all its secrets, which are now being
uncovered by marine archaeologists.
The
precious marble slabs themselves were saved from the depths at the time: Lord
Elgin lost no time ordering their salvage. In correspondence with the local
vice consul of Great Britain seeking assistance, he wrote “…she had on board
some quantities of boxes with stones of no value, but of great consequence for
me to secure…”.
Now a team
of marine archaeologists headed by the Greek Culture Ministry's Ephorate of
Underwater Antiquities, Dimitris Kourkoumelis, has revisited the Mentor and
excavated more of the hull, which had been badly damaged by looting and many
salvage operations over the years.
“We have
uncovered the remainder of the hull, sections of the hull and prow, a mere
quarter of the ship,” Kourkoumelis told Haaretz, adding that unfortunately the
rest of the hull had been completely destroyed during the 19th and 20th
century, by treasure hunters seeking more marbles that were rumored to have
remained on the seabed.
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Artifacts found aboard the Mentor, Lord Elgin's ship that sank off
Kythera while carrying Parthenon marbles from Piraeus to London in 1802. Petros
Vezyrtzi
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Lord Elgin takes the Parthenon frieze
Thomas
Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, was a Scottish aristocrat who was named
British ambassador to the Ottoman court in Constantinople in 1801. Acting on a
paper obtained from the pasha, whose abstruse language has been studied ever
since with Talmudic fervor, Elgin, had parts of the Parthenon marble frieze
pried loose from the Parthenon, the ancient temple of Athena on top of the
Acropolis, and loaded onto his ship, the Mentor.
On the
September 15, 1802, the Mentor set off to Britain, carrying the marbles
along with a cargo of priceless antiquities. The first port call was the island
of Malta.
Favorable
winds brought the ship to Cape Matapan, the southernmost point of mainland
Greece. Then a strong easterly wind developed, forcing it to spend the night
there.
Read the
whole article here
haaretz.com
