Priceless Haul From Ancient Greece Shipwreck Won't Stop Yielding Treasures

Discovered more than 100 years ago, the Antikythera shipwreck off the coast of Greece refuses to stop yielding treasures. This summer, explorers found 50 valuable artifacts from the ship.

Recently salvaged objects include remains of a bone flute, glassware, chess-like piece from a game played in ancient times, more likely before 65 B.C. when the ship could have sunk, reports Christian Science Monitor. The plates and glasses are said to reveal foods more than 2,000 years old.

"This shipwreck is far from exhausted. Every single dive on it delivers fabulous finds, and reveals how the '1 percent' lived in the time of Caesar," said project co-Director Dr. Brendan Foley, in a press release.

After realizing its archeological potential, explorers now believe the wreck cover an area of 2,000 square meters.

The wreck was first spotted by fishermen in 1900 near the southwestern island of Antikythera which lends its name to the wreck. Nearly 36 statues of Greek gods and mythical heroes were removed. The first exploration up on discovery also yielded a mechanical computer like device that encoded planetary movements and could predict eclipses.

Given the vast search area, researchers sent a manned robotic submersible to create a 3D map of the wreck which is now aiding explorers to more effectively search the area with scattered artifacts.