Human skeleton found on famed Antikythera shipwreck!


A team of international archaeologists from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have recovered a partial skeleton -- believed to be from a male in his early 20s -- from its watery gravesite about 50 meters (165 feet) below the surface. And researchers hope it could shed light on what caused the ship to sink off of the jagged coastline more than 2,000 years ago.
It was the first dive on the first day, within three minutes of hitting the bottom and a couple of hand swipes to move away the sediment, long bones appeared and then the skull. It was pretty exciting," Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist with WHOI and co-director of the expedition.
A treasure trove from antiquity....
The excavations have yielded a partial skull, including a jaw and three teeth, two arm bones, multiple rib fragments and two femurs.
Foley says that the bones were located on August 31 during the team's second expedition of the season. Archaeologists were already jubilant following a successful exploration in May, which saw the team return with spectacular treasures that included a bronze spear, gold jewelry and glassware.
Will DNA reveal secrets of the deep?
Foley affectionately refers to the remains as Pamphilos, a Greek name which translates to "friend to everyone." The moniker comes from a drinking vessel with the same name etched across the rim previously recovered by famed underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau in 1976.
With painstaking care, the team disinterred the latest skeletal remains and brought them back to the surface, where Hannes Schroeder, an expert in ancient DNA from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, had been drafted to evaluate whether there is the potential for DNA extraction.
Hannes Schroeder snaps on two pairs of blue latex gloves, then wipes his hands with a solution of bleach. In front of him is a large Tupperware box full of plastic bags that each contain sea water and a piece of red-stained bone. He lifts one out and inspects its contents as several archaeologists hover behind, waiting for his verdict. They’re hoping he can pull off a feat never attempted before — DNA analysis on someone who has been under the sea for 2,000 years.
Now Schroder finds himself in an accidental race against time. Since the bones were removed from the seabed, any viable DNA that may exist will have started to degrade faster due to the change in environment. But a sample extraction must wait until permission is granted by Greek authorities.
"The clock is ticking. That DNA is certainly degrading so it's a race," says Foley, who is working with his Greek counterpart Theotokis Theodoulou to get the green light from officials for sample extraction.
"I'm confident that the permits will be issued and the samples will be in Hannes (Schroder's) hands soon. With any luck he'll have initial screening done by the end of October, maybe some of the deeper screening done by the end of the year
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