A giant 2,000-year-old 'ghost ship' comes to life with sound waves

A team of archaeologists and divers from the University of Patras and the Scuba Diving Club (Greece) have uncovered a "ghost" near the Greek island of Kefallinia, in the Ionian Sea - east of the Mediterranean Sea. .

The authors, led by Dr. Xenophontas Dimas (Patras University), used sonar, a technique that researchers often use to survey marine geophysics, using reflected sound waves to identify objects. abnormal.

Image data sketched by sonar technique shows a ship-shaped object - (photo provided by the team).

The obscure, ghostly object of a ship has been identified since 2013. Since then, archaeologists have been devoted to excavation.

The excavation results show that it was a Roman merchant ship dating from 1,900-2,100 years, or about the 1st century BC until the 1st century AD.This mysterious "ghost ship" is 34 meters long, 13 meters wide and carries heavy loads of artifacts, being the largest shipwreck ever discovered in the eastern Mediterranean. It had hidden under the mud at the bottom of the sea, so it had been invisible to previous conventional survey measures.

Close-up of "ghost ship" - (photo provided by the research team).

This great ghost ship, named Fiscardo , was also the name of an important port in the region in 146 BC to 330 AD. Until now, it is still a big fishing port and still named Fiscardo.

Another mysterious point of the ghost ship Fiscardo is the evidence that it was not sunk due to natural disasters, but quietly resting at the bottom of the sea on a calm, unknown day. It brought with me 6,000 amphorae jars, an antique with 2 straps, a gourd, and a slender neck, often beautifully decorated and popular at that time.

The research has just been published in the scientific journal Journal of Archeological Science.

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