Photo: Vasilis Mentogianis

An area off the Fourni archepelago, a group of 13 islands between the islands of Samos and Icaria in Greece, is known as a graveyard of ships.  In June, underwater archaeologists discovered 23 ship wrecks during a survey period of only 22 days.

The team of 25 divers identified wrecks spanning more than 2,000 years of Greek maritime history. As reported by National Geographic, “the earliest shipwreck dates to roughly 525 B.C., while the most recent is from the early 1800s. The other wrecks range across the centuries, with cargoes from the Classical period (480-323 B.C.), the Hellenistic period (323-31 B.C.), the Late Roman period (300-600 A.D.), and the Medieval period (500-1500 A.D.) Cooking pots, plates, bowls, storage jars, a palm-size lamp, and black-painted ceramic fine-ware are among the artifacts recovered from the wrecks so far.”

Previously, in September of 2015, 22 ancient ship wrecks were identified off Fourni. The total of 45 wrecks now located represent 20% of all known shipwrecks in Greek waters.