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Digging Up the Past

February 13, 2017

Divers excavate artifacts during ongoing excavations of a ship that sank around 65 B.C. off the Greek island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea. In August 2016, archaeologists and technical experts from WHOI and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports found a human skull, with jaw and teeth; an arm, leg, rib bones; and other remains. If enough viable DNA is preserved in the bones, scientists could identify the ethnicity, geographic origin, and other characteristics of the 2,100-year-old shipwreck victim. The bones may have been preserved because the person was buried rapidly in seafloor sediments. (Photo by Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO/WHOI)