Missing Marble Head of Hercules Recovered From a 2000-Year-Old Antikythera Shipwreck in Greece

Somewhere in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens stands a headless statue of Hercules, recovered in a 2000-year-old shipwreck over a century ago. In 2022, underwater archaeologists found his marble head at the same site.

Usually, shipwrecks are found by accident by divers who are out exploring the seabed or by fishermen who hit something solid at the bottom of the sea with their gear. Then, they alert the relevant authorities who further study the site.

In the Spring of 1900, a crew of sponge divers was making their way to Tunisia when they were suddenly caught up in a storm. This was near the Greek Island of Antikythera, and the divers decided to explore the ocean for sponges while waiting for calmer waters.

The sponge divers from Symi Island, led by Captain Dimitrios Kontos, were initially shocked to find the wreck roughly 150 feet below the ocean surface when they were merely out looking for sponges. Assisted by the Hellenic Royal Navy, which sent two ships to aid them in the recovery efforts, they found a lot of artifacts.

The recovery efforts that continued for over a year by the sponge divers went down in history as one of the most iconic diving operations ever. Many valuable objects were found that proved invaluable for scientific and historical research.

So far, all the excavations have yielded numerous artifacts, including mid-first-century Roman ceramics, Hellenistic pottery dating back to 75 BCE, and amphorae from 80 BCE. A thorough analysis of these remarkable finds has led the archaeologists to conclude that it was a cargo ship that had sunk around 60 BCE.

One of the most treasured finds of the sponge divers during their initial discovery of the shipwreck was the retrieval of the headless Herakles of Antikythera. It’s a free-standing marble structure but one that was missing its head. The late Hellenistic statue depicts Hercules as an aged, world-weary warrior leaning on his club.

The Antikythera youth or Ephebe is also one of the remarkable recoveries made by the sponge divers during their initial excavation of the shipwreck. Registered as the bronze statue of youth at the National Museum of Archaeology, it was one of the first in the series of Greek marble and bronze sculptures to be retrieved from the site.

This one needs special mention; during the excavation, the divers found a large clump of corroded remnants of a device that has since been named the Antikythera Mechanism. In 1902, archaeologist Valerios Stais identified it as an object containing gears. During the restoration of the find, the lump was separated into three main fragments, carefully subdivided into 82 parts, and then pieced together.

All the recovered and known parts of the Antikythera Mechanism are kept at the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens. Several replicas have been made to understand and demonstrate the intricate workings of the device, which has since been known as the first analog computer.

The University scientists made surprising discoveries when they read the inscriptions. They found 37 bronze meshing gears designed to follow the specific movements of the sun and the moon through the zodiac. It showcased the solar system model and was also used to predict eclipses.

After the initial excavation efforts by the sponge divers in association with the Navy in 1900, several recovery missions have been conducted over the years. Continuous efforts have been made to retrieve as many artifacts as possible during the century. All objects found at the site, including the seabed sample, have been sent to the National Museum for safekeeping and research purposes.

The excavation led by master explorer Cousteau in the ’70s may have been brief, but it validated what everyone largely suspected. Everyone associated with the recovery efforts of the site has firmly believed that the shipwreck had much more treasures to offer.

Well known for his love of undersea exploration using modern scientific methods and as a pioneer of scuba-diving, Jacques Cousteau and his team did a splendid job of recovering many valuable artifacts from the shipwreck. He featured his dive into the depths of the ocean, finding the lost treasure at the site in his documentary Diving for Roman Plunder.

Despite the fact that diving efforts at the shipwreck site have yielded rich dividends in scientific research and invaluable artifacts, the divers have found it quite challenging to reach the unexplored parts of the wreckage for nearly a century.

Most of the wreckage site was beyond the reach of divers using only conventional scuba diving techniques. Nevertheless, since the brief exploration in the mid-70s, the world has seen several technological advances in conducting underwater surveys.

After a gap of four decades, a team of divers made a trip to the island to explore the wreck. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities collaborated to send their best oceanographers, Brendan Foley and Aggeliki Simossi, for the job.

Foley, Simossi, and the team were surprised to find the secondary site brimming with new finds, which led them to believe it to be a second ship that sank around the same time as the original one. A lead anchor stock was one of the largest items they recovered from the wreck. 

The Antikythera shipwreck has revealed over time that it holds more secrets than what has been uncovered. Every excavation has only piqued the interest of underwater archaeologists, driving them to initiate a new five-year research program from 2021 to 2025.

Initially, the Return to Antikythera project was formulated in 2012, and the one in 2022 falls under the purview of the newly launched five-year program. It was conducted from 23rd May to 15th June 2022 under the guidance of Dr. Angeliki G. Simosi, the head of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Euboea, and Lorenz Baumer of the University of Geneva.

Another critical task for the underwater archaeology team of the Return to Antikythera project was the relocation of the enormous natural boulders, which proved to be impeding the progress of the excavations. An unknown event had resulted in those sizable boulders partially covering the wreckage.

Removing these boulders gave the divers unhindered access to the unexplored parts of the wreckage. Little is known about what caused the chunks to cover the shipwreck, but whatever it was had significantly impacted the recovery of valuable artifacts for decades.

One of the most significant finds of the Return to Antikythera project of 2022 was the retrieval of the missing marble head of Hercules. The headless statue had been originally placed at the National Museum of Archaeology with invoice number 5742 for the world to see.

Besides the famous marble head of the Greek hero Hercules that had the world sit up and take notice of the Antikythera shipwreck a second time around, other new findings were equally surprising. The divers recovered two human teeth extracted from the depths of the marine deposits, along with several fragments of wood, copper, and bronze.

During the tedious task of exploring the depths of the ocean bed in and around the shipwreck, steps have been meticulously taken to document every little detail of the excavation process. Each item found at the site has been noted, invoiced, and sent to Athens’ National Museum of Archaeology for appropriate storage and further research.

The importance of every little object found at the site of the shipwreck far outweighs the trouble the entire archaeological fraternity has gone through to excavate. Many of the items were from the ship’s equipment, including the iron and bronze nails, the marine deposits encrusted iron concretion masses, and the lead collar of the wooden anchor.

All the excavation efforts of several divers and archaeological teams and government institutions of Greece have helped recover more than 600 artifacts so far from the shipwreck. There is reason to believe the site hides much more, and new artifacts are found every time a team of divers dives into the ocean’s depths.

All the items found from the shipwreck, including the statues and the mechanism, point to the ancient Greeks’ technological prowess. According to Jo Marchant of the Smithsonian Magazine, the discovery gave the world a window into how they viewed the universe.

As if the Antikythera shipwreck did not offer enough for the archaeologists, many more wreckage sites still warrant their attention. In fact, the Oxford Roman Economy Project even has an extensive database of all the artifacts recovered from the shipwrecks worldwide.

In over 120 years since the Antikythera shipwreck was first discovered, it has yielded several invaluable artifacts. Most of them were recovered from the ship’s stern and the galley. The renowned Antikythera Mechanism was found on the hold, a section of the vessel that has largely remained unexplored even to date.