DELOS, GREECE—Underwater excavations conducted by a team from Greece’s Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities have investigated the area around the breakwater that protected a now sunken port on the island of Delos. According to The Greek Reporter, Delos was located along an ancient maritime trade route linking the eastern and western Mediterranean. The breakwater, which measured around 520 feet long and 130 feet wide, was built of unshaped rocks underwater and large granite blocks above water in order to shield the island’s central port from strong northwestern winds. The team also discovered a fallen colonnade and three shipwrecks, including a Hellenistic ship that had been carrying oil and wine from Italy. Two shipwrecks found during a previous expedition were mapped and photographed. All of these shipwrecks date to the peak of the community’s prosperity, between the end of the second century and the first century B.C. For more on underwater archaeology in Greece, go to “Antikythera Man.”
