The Titanic franchise might have failed to make a sequel of the superhit movie, where they find Jack’s body preserved in the sea. The failure to do that in reel life doesn’t imply a failure in real life as well. A ‘well preserved’ human body was recently found inside a Roman ship. According to archaeologists, the ship dates back to the reign of Julius Ceaser, 2100 year ago. The name of the ship is ‘Antikythera’ which is a 40-meter long Roman merchant vessel. It is believed that the ship sank in the Mediterranean sea after a violent collision with an ocean cliff in a rough sea.
When asked about the ship, Underwater archaeologist Brendan Foley and Co-director of the Antikythera excavation team, said: “We think it was such a violent wrecking event. People got trapped below decks.” According to reports, the wreck was discovered in 1900. The discovery was made by a group of Greek sponge divers on their way to Tunisia.
The ship was considered a gold mine then with the discovery of expensive artefacts including a 7-foot statue of Hercules,7 life-sized marble horses and treasures of gold chests and jewellery. A ton of Ancient Roman currency along with the anachronistic clockwork mechanism were also discovered.
All of the items listed above were nothing special as compared to the recently discovered human dead body-well preserved all these years. This is an exciting discovery as most bodies underwater are either consumed by marine animals or washed away by currents. This particular body was preserved as it was buried under about a half-meter (1.6 feet) of broken pottery and sand deposits. Most of the body remains intact, including two arm bones, two femurs, several ribs, and a partial skull with teeth. The excitement of archaeologists can be guessed fro the statement by BrendanFoley that: “We’re thrilled. We don’t know of anything else like it.”
The team on inspection of the size of the femurs speculated that t passenger was a male. The passenger is nicknamed as “Pamphilos.” More information about the body will be available once the team receives permission for DNA extraction from the Greece Government.
