Danish and Greek archaeologists have made a remarkable discovery, finding one of the largest building complexes of the ancient world, a naval base where the Greeks stored their enormous fleet 2,500 years ago.
The submerged remains of the naval base, dated to around 493 BCE, were found deep within the harbor of Mounichia, used today mainly for fishing and yachting in Piraeus, on the outskirts of Athens, Greece.
The location of the naval complex in Piraeus in ancient Greece played a vital defense role in the region’s ability to defend itself from maritime attacks. The ancient complex is massive and its harbor fortifications and ship sheds were designed to hold hundreds of triremes, Greek warships.
University of Copenhagen underwater archaeologist Bjørn Lovén, led the expedition as part of the Zea Harbor Project. The project began in 2002 with a goal of excavating and investigating ancient Athenian naval bases and their fortifications. The Zea Project’s goal is to find the Athenian fleet of triremes believed to be located in the ancient harbors of Zea and Mounichia, currently located in Attica.
In an interview, Loven said that “The sheds were monumental,” adding the foundations under the columns were 1.4 x 1.4 meters (4.5 x 4.5 feet) wide, while the sheds themselves stood more than 7 to 8 meters (23 to 26 feet) high in some places, and were 50 meters (164 feet) long.
Loven and his colleagues, using Carbon-14 dating, were able to date the complex, based on pottery shards and pieces of worked wood found inside the foundations of a colonnade dividing two ship-sheds to around 520 BCE and 480 BCE.
For Loven and his team, as well as many historians, this is an exciting revelation because it means that the complex could have provided shelter to the Athenian ships that were instrumental in defeating the Persians during the Battle of Salamis between the Greeks and the Persians in 480 BCE.
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Source: Digital Journal
