Fragments of marble from the Acropolis of Athens were discovered in the wreckage of a ship that sank in 1802, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture.
The ship was the Mentor, a brig that sank southeast of the island of Kythera (also spelled Kythera or Kythera) in the Aegean Sea. Greece’s Ministry of Culture said in a translated statement that the ship was used by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, to transport sculptures from the Acropolis to Britain.
The Acropolis is an elevated area of Athens that contains some of the city’s most important buildings. The most notable is the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the city’s patron goddess Athena. The sculptures that Lord Elgin was removing depict scenes from Greek mythology, particularly the birth of Athena. It is unclear whether the newly discovered fragments are from the Parthenon itself or from other parts of the Acropolis.
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After the ship sank, Elgin had sponge divers dive to the wreck. They recovered many of the sculptures and sold them to the British Museum in 1816, where they remain today.
Modern archaeologists have been excavating the ship’s remains since 2009. Although the ship itself has largely collapsed, 19th-century debris has been found, including a chess set. The latest excavations have uncovered the ship’s copper plating and the remains of a clay furnace likely used by the ship’s crew.
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The ancient carvings found on board are triangular marble blocks with what looks like nails at the bottom. Representatives of Greece’s Ministry of Culture said in a statement that modern scholars refer to such works as “drops.” It measures approximately 3.7 inches by 1.9 inches (9.3 by 4.7 cm) and was probably attached somewhere on the Acropolis, perhaps to another block in the Parthenon itself.
At the time Lord Elgin removed the sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles or Parthenon Marbles, Greece was under Ottoman rule. Elgin claimed he had proper permission from Ottoman authorities to move the sculpture. Greece claimed that Elgin did not have the necessary permits and demanded that the British Museum return the sculpture, saying Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Empire at the time.
The museum refused, but is reportedly in talks to return the Elgin Marbles to the Greek government starting in 2021. No agreement has been reached so far. One challenge is that British law prevents the British Museum from deaccessioning any artefacts. This makes it even more difficult to return them to Greece.
Preservation and analysis of the remains of the recently discovered shipwreck is ongoing.
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