News

Maritime archaeologists were stunned when they discovered a 2,000-year-old skeleton on the wreck of the Antikythera in the Aegean Sea.

The discovery is considered extremely rare, not only because of the age of the subject, but because most skeletons tend to be disturbed by fish or marine life—especially when they met an untimely death in a shipwreck dating to 65 B.C.E.

“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,” Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, told CNN. “It was pretty exciting.”

The Antikythera has been valuable to researchers for some time now. In fact, Jacques Cousteau collected hundreds of artifacts – including human remains – back in 1976. However, this will be the first such discovery in the age of DNA. Scientists hope the find - which includes a skull with jaw and three teeth, two arm bones, and two femurs - will reveal more about the life of a seaman 2,000 years ago.

For more, check out this in-depth article on CNN.