10 Newly Discovered Shipwrecks from 3,000 B.C. to WWII Reveal Ancient Artifacts Spanning Centuries

The Greek Ministry of Culture said the 10 shipwrecks were found during a four-year survey off the coast of the small island of Kasos in the Aegean Sea

Nearly a dozen shipwrecks containing ancient artifacts from around the world have been discovered off the coast of Greece.

The 10 shipwrecks were found during a four-year survey off the coast of the small island of Kasos in the Aegean Sea, according to a press release from the Greek Ministry of Culture, translated by CBS News and Heritage Daily.

One of the shipwrecks found between 2019 and 2023 dates as far back as 3,000 B.C., La Brújula Verde magazine reported. The latest was from the World War II era.

“It is the first systematic research on the seabed of Kasos with the main objective of locating, recording and studying the antiquities of an area at the crossroads of cultures and once a center of navigation,” the survey's website says, translated from Greek by CBS News.

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Researchers used archaeological and historical evidence as well as various sources, testimonies and reports to hunt down the shipwrecks, per the reports. Homer's epic Iliad was even used to help guide them.

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A cache of “unique” items from Spain, Italy, Africa and Asia Minor were found with the wrecks, which were between 65 and 155 feet deep, CBS News reported. 

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Among the objects were drinking vessels, terra sigillata flasks from Africa, an amphora and a stone anchor from the Archaic period, per the reports.

This was also the first time experts were able to do mapping and bathymetry of the Kasos-Karpathos reef and the Karpatholimnion area, the Greek Ministry said.

The survey was also the subject of a film called Diving into the History of the Aegean, which will be shown at several upcoming international archaeological film festivals, according to La Brújula Verde.

More than 20,000 photographs were taken during the survey, per the reports.

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