Marine archaeologists have recovered a bronze arm from an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, where the remains of at least seven more priceless statues from the classical world are believed to lie buried. 
 
 Divers found the right arm, encrusted and stained green, under half a metre of sediment on the boulder-strewn slope where the ship and its cargo now rest. The huge vessel, perhaps 50m from bow to stern, was sailing from Asia Minor to Rome in 1BC when it foundered near the tiny island between Crete and the Peloponnese. 
 
 The project team, from the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and Lund University in Sweden, discovered the buried arm with a bespoke underwater metal detector which has revealed the presence of other large metal objects nearby under the seabed. “There should be at least seven statues,” Alexandros Sotiriou, a Greek technical diver on the team told the Guardian. The operation is overseen by Ageliki Simosi, director of the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, which is responsible for all underwater archaeology in Greece. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Detail of the arm discovered under half a metre of sediment by the ancient shipwreck. Photograph: Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO 2017 
 
 “What we’re finding is these sculptures are in among and under the boulders,” said Brendan Foley, co-director of the excavations team at Lund University. “We think it means a minimum of seven, and potentially nine, bronze sculptures still waiting for us down there.” The boulders that overlie the metal objects weigh several tonnes and may have tumbled onto the wreck during a massive earthquake that shook Antikythera and surrounding islands in the 4th century AD. 
 
 The bronze arm, probably from a statue of a male, is the highlight of the team’s 2017 excavation season. Among other objects the divers recovered are a patterned slab of red marble the size of a tea tray, a silver tankard, sections of joined wood from the ship’s frame, and a human bone. Last year, the team found the skull, teeth, ribs and other bones of an individual who perished on the wreck. They have since extracted DNA from the skull and from it learned the individual’s sex and where they came from. Until those results are published, the person is known as Pamphilos after divers found the name, meaning “friend of all”, carved on a buried cup that had been decorated with an erotic scene. 
 
 The Antikythera wreck first came to light in 1900 when Greek sponge divers happened on the scene in 50 metres of water. Archaeologists have since pulled up spectacular bronze and marble statues, ornate glass and pottery, stunning pieces of jewellery, and a remarkable geared device – the Antikythera mechanism – which modelled the motion of the heavens. During the 2017 excavations, divers recovered a bronze disc that may be a missing part of the ancient device. 
 
 But it is the statues that made the wreck famous. In the 1900s, archaeologists working at the site surfaced pieces of a beautiful Hellenistic bronze, named the Antikythera Youth. The statue now stands in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens alongside an impressive bronze head named the Antikythera philosopher, also hauled from the wreck. Both date to the 4th century BC, raising the question of how they came to be aboard the ill-fated ship 300 years later. 
 
 Jens Daehner, associate curator of antiquities at the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, said the Antikythera wreck had already yielded significant bronze statues. “The chance to recover another group of lifesize statues associated with the wreck is extraordinary, because bronzes are usually encountered randomly under the sea, picked up by fishing nets or chanced upon by divers,” he said. “Those finds are not excavated like at Antikythera, where archaeologists can and do document the entire context, which provides all the sorts of very valuable data as to when the sculptures were transported and why they were on the ship: for trade, as booty, or as scrap metal to be recycled.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest As well as the arm, divers have recovered a patterned slab of red marble the size of a tea tray, a silver tankard, sections of joined wood from the ship’s frame and a human bone. Photograph: Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO 2017 
 
 The bronze recycling industry was huge in classical times and later in the medieval period, leading to the destruction of countless statues and other artefacts that would be priceless today. For this reason, many of the finest specimens of bronze statues that survive were once lost at sea. “Ancient bronze sculpture in general is rare due to the metal having been recycled in antiquity and later. We think of the ones from the sea as those that got away,” said Daehner. “Any chance to recover more Greek sculptures in any medium, but particularly in bronze, should not be missed.” 
 
 To recover the statues will take a massive effort. The divers must first remove boulders that are in their way, either by hauling them up, or by drilling holes in the rocks and filling them with grout that expands to fracture the stone. Another option is to crack the boulders open with small shaped charges that technical divers use to rescue people trapped when undersea caves collapse. But even if the statues can be lifted from the sea, they will be broken and need costly and time-consuming conservation and reconstruction. 
 
 Statues are not the only objects the excavators hope to find. The latest excavations uncovered a lump of material bearing a bronze disc that matches the size of geared wheels found in the Antikythera mechanism. Wound by a handle, the device showed the movement of the sun, moon and planets in the sky, but not all of the machine was recovered. “The disc looks very exciting indeed,” said Andrew Ramsey, a CT specialist at Nikon Metrology in Tring, who used CT scans to read inscriptions on the original pieces of the mechanism. But the disc may be something entirely different. Preliminary x-ray images reveal no teeth, but an image of a bull, suggesting the disc is not a cog but a decorative item. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Divers also discovered this piece of material bearing a bronze disc that matches the size of geared wheels found in the Antikythera mechanism. Photograph: Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO 2017 
 
 Mike Edmunds, emeritus professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University and a member of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, said the findings are impressive. “They are getting very good at detecting bronze items which raises the possibility that they may be able to find either the missing planetary gearing from the Antikythera mechanism, which we know is there from the analysis of the inscriptions on the mechanism, or a new piece of mechanism, or another mechanism that was being transported, and that would be very exciting.” 
 
 The team will return to the wreck in the spring, optimistic that they may pull up fresh treasures from the wreck. “It’s not going to be just the bronze sculptures,” said Foley. “We’re down in the hold of the ship now, so all the other things that would have been carried should be down there as well. Every day is going to be like opening Tut’s tomb.” ||||| There are many unrecorded conquerors, battles and Romeo and Juliets in the vastness of prehistory whose stories are waiting to be told. Prehistoric finds like Hoyo Negro's earliest American, the Hobbit-like species Homo floresiensis and insight into the first artists suggest the best stories may await discovery. New Fossils Help Bring Hobbit Humans to Life 
 
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 The list of findings from the last few years goes on and on and includes Captain Kidd's shipwreck. The wreckage of Quedagh Merchant, the ship abandoned by the 17th century pirate Captain William Kidd as he raced to New York in an ill-fated attempt to clear his name, was found in less than 10 feet of Caribbean seawater by a team from Indiana University. Most Famous Pirates of the Caribbean 
 
 A small village in Greece might be home to the greatest discovery of the new century. The largest ancient tomb ever found in Greece has been dated to the period of Alexander the Great. A 16-foot lion statue sits atop the tomb and two sphinxes guard an entrance bricked up with granite blocks weighing a ton each. As the excavation progresses, archaeologists have uncovered two incredible female caryatid statues, mosaic floors and three chambers. Greek Tomb's Female Sculptures Fully Revealed 
 
 Decades of underwater research have provided us with a good understanding of our maritime past. But there has been one looming gap: ancient warships. After years of searching, the site of the Battle of the Egadi Islands, the decisive climax to the First Punic War, was discovered off the coast of Sicily. The site has yielded 11 warship rams, as the one depicted in this picture, as well as armament and amphoras (container vases) that were meant to resupply Hamilcar Barca's forces, Hannibal's father. Photos: Biggest Shipwreck Finds in History 
 
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 The “Tomb of Philip” in the northern Greek town of Vergina does not belong to King Philip II of Macedon, says new research which fuels the long-standing dispute over the final resting place of Alexander the Great’s father. 
 
 According to the study, a skeleton found in an adjacent tomb shows evidence of a leg wound which is consistent with the one sustained by Philip II, as reported by some historical accounts. 
 
 The claim is in stark contrast to other research published two months ago which maintains Alexander the Great’s father was indeed buried in the famous “Tomb of Philip.” 
 
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 Scholars have argued over Philip II’s tomb ever since Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovered the site of his likely burial in 1977-78. He excavated a large mound — the Great Tumulus — at Vergina on the advice of the English classicist Nicholas Hammond. 
 
 Among the monuments found within the tumulus were three tombs. One, called Tomb I, had been looted, but contained a stunning wall painting of the Rape of Persephone, along with fragmentary human remains. 
 
 Tomb II remained undisturbed and contained the almost complete cremated remains of a male skeleton in the main chamber and the cremated remains of a female in the antechamber. Grave goods included silver and bronze vessels, gold wreaths, weapons, armor and two gold larnakes. 
 
 Tomb III was also found undisturbed, with a silver funerary urn that contained the bones of a young male, and a number of silver vessels and ivory reliefs. 
 
 “There is an unanimous agreement that Tomb III, which has a façade strikingly similar to that of Tomb II, belongs to Alexander the Great’s son, Alexander IV,” Antonis Bartsiokas of the Democritus University of Thrace and Juan-Luis Arsuaga of the Centro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid and colleagues wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 
 
 In fact, most of the scholarly debate concentrates on the occupants of Tomb II. 
 
 “Despite anthropological and archaeological evidence that the tomb belongs to King Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydice, the archaeological establishment still maintains that Tomb II belongs to Philip II,” the researchers wrote. 
 
 Remains of Alexander the Great's Father Confirmed Found 
 
 A powerful 4th century B.C. military ruler from the Greek kingdom of Macedon, King Philip II gained control of Greece and the Balkan peninsula through tactful use of warfare, diplomacy, and marriage alliances (the Macedonians practiced polygamy). 
 
 His efforts — he reformed the Macedonian army and proposed the invasion of Persia — later provided the basis for the achievements of his son and successor Alexander the Great, who went on to conquer most of the known world. 
 
 The overlord of an empire stretching from Greece and Egypt eastward across Asia to India, Alexander died in Babylon, now in central Iraq, in June of 323 B.C. — just before his 33rd birthday. 
 
 His elusive tomb is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the ancient world. 
 
 Using scanning and radiography, Bartsiokas and colleagues analyzed a partial skeleton of a middle-aged male that had been long disinterred from Tomb I at Vergina. 
 
 The researchers judged the individual to be around 45 when he died, matching the age at which Philip was killed, and estimated he was 5.9 feet tall. 
 
 Photos: Female Sculptures Revealed in Greek Tomb 
 
 They noticed the individual had a knee joint showing signs of fusion (ankylosis), and a hole through the overgrowth of the knee, likely produced by a penetrating instrument, such as a fast-moving projectile, like a spear. 
 
 The wound “would have affected locomotion and rendered the person lame, with an uneven gait,” the researchers concluded. 
 
 According to some historical reports, a lance impaled Philip’s leg three years before his assassination in 336 BC, leaving him lame. 
 
 The injury “is conclusive evidence for the identification of one tomb occupant as Philip,” the researchers said. 
 
 Bartsiokas and colleagues also stated that Tomb I contains the remains of a 18-year-old female and a 42-week-old infant of unknown gender. 
 
 The researchers believe the individuals are Philip’s wife Cleopatra, and their newborn child, both killed shortly after Philip’s death. He was killed by his bodyguard Pausanias as he walked into a theater in the Macedonian capital of Aegae. 
 
 “As a consequence, Tomb II could only belong to King Arrhidaeus and Eurydice and may well contain some of the armor of Alexander the Great,” Bartsiokas and colleagues concluded. 
 
 However, according to Theodore Antikas, author of another study which concluded the bones found in Tomb II are those of Philip II and a Scythian princess, Bartsiokas and colleagues are missing a point—or more precisely, some bones. 
 
 In a letter to the editor of PNAS, Antikas, head of the anthropological research team of Vergina Excavation at Aristotle University, maintains Bartsiokas’s research has been done on a small part of the bones found in Tomb I in 1977-78. 
 
 According to the researcher, the bones from Tomb I took different routes ever since their discovery. Some were first kept at Vergina, and some were sent to the Archaeological Museum in Thessaloniki (AMT). ||||| There are many unrecorded conquerors, battles and Romeo and Juliets in the vastness of prehistory whose stories are waiting to be told. Prehistoric finds like Hoyo Negro's earliest American, the Hobbit-like species Homo floresiensis and insight into the first artists suggest the best stories may await discovery. New Fossils Help Bring Hobbit Humans to Life 
 
 While 17 new pyramids were discovered in Egypt in 2011 alone, using infrared satellite technology, a previously unknown pharaoh named Woseribre Senebkay and the necropolis of his dynasty were found earlier this year. Long-Lost Pyramids Found? 
 
 Unique findings include a Gate to Hell in Hierapoils, in southwestern Turkey, complete with animals that died from getting too close. Known as Pluto's Gate -- Ploutonion in Greek, Plutonium in Latin -- the cave was celebrated as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology and tradition. Photos: 'Gate to Hell' Guardians Found 
 
 The list of findings from the last few years goes on and on and includes Captain Kidd's shipwreck. The wreckage of Quedagh Merchant, the ship abandoned by the 17th century pirate Captain William Kidd as he raced to New York in an ill-fated attempt to clear his name, was found in less than 10 feet of Caribbean seawater by a team from Indiana University. Most Famous Pirates of the Caribbean 
 
 A small village in Greece might be home to the greatest discovery of the new century. The largest ancient tomb ever found in Greece has been dated to the period of Alexander the Great. A 16-foot lion statue sits atop the tomb and two sphinxes guard an entrance bricked up with granite blocks weighing a ton each. As the excavation progresses, archaeologists have uncovered two incredible female caryatid statues, mosaic floors and three chambers. Greek Tomb's Female Sculptures Fully Revealed 
 
 Decades of underwater research have provided us with a good understanding of our maritime past. But there has been one looming gap: ancient warships. After years of searching, the site of the Battle of the Egadi Islands, the decisive climax to the First Punic War, was discovered off the coast of Sicily. The site has yielded 11 warship rams, as the one depicted in this picture, as well as armament and amphoras (container vases) that were meant to resupply Hamilcar Barca's forces, Hannibal's father. Photos: Biggest Shipwreck Finds in History 
 
 Machu Picchu was not known to the outside world until 1911, but what lost cities are awaiting discovery today? Three ancient Mayan cities were recently discovered and researchers say they think more are in the surrounding area. Photos: The Hunt for Lost Cities 
 
 Have the most important temples, tombs, pyramids, cities, and civilizations been found? Not at all, according to Peter B. Campbell, director of archaeology at the Albanian Center for Marine Research. "The greatest age of discovery is happening right now. And the real fun is just about to begin," Campbell said. 
 
 An archaeological dig in northern Italy has unearthed the remains of a 13-year-old-girl buried face-down -- evidence, archaeologists say, that despite her young age, she was rejected by her community and seen as a danger even when dead. 
 
 Dubbed by Italian media as “the witch girl,” the skeleton was unearthed at the complex of San Calocero in Albenga on the Ligurian Riviera, by a team of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology at the Vatican. 
 
 The site, a burial ground on which a martyr church dedicated to San Calocero was built around the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., was completely abandoned in 1593. 
 
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 The prone burial, which has yet to be radiocarbon dated, is thought to date from the late antiquity or the early Middle Ages. 
 
 “These rare burials are explained as an act of punishment. What the dead had done was not accepted by the community,” said Stefano Roascio, the excavation director. Like other deviant burials, in which the dead were buried with a brick in the mouth, nailed or staked to the ground, or even decapitated and dismembered, the face-down treatment aimed to humiliate the dead and impede the individual from rising from the grave. 
 
 “In particular, the prone burial was linked to the belief that the soul left the body through the mouth. Burying the dead face-down was a way to prevent the impure soul threatening the living,” anthropologist Elena Dellù told Discovery News. 
 
 In extreme cases, a face-down burial was used as the ultimate punishment, with the victim horrifically buried alive. 
 
 It wasn’t a treatment used on the teenage girl, however. 
 
 “The skeleton’s position rules out this possibility,” Dellù said. 
 
 Found with her hands placed on the pelvis and straight and parallel legs, the girl showed no apparent signs of a violent death in her bones. However, Dellù noticed porotic hyperostosis on the skull and orbits. These areas of spongy or porous bone tissue are the result of a severe anaemia. 
 
 “She could have suffered from an inherited blood disorder such as thalassemia or from hemorrhagic conditions. More simply, it could have been an iron lacking diet,” Dellù said. 
 
 Standing just under 5 feet tall, the young girl somehow scared the community -- perhaps it was just her pallor, her possible hematomas and fainting. 
 
 Intriguingly, her disrespectful burial was found in a privileged area, just in front of the church. 
 
 “This makes the finding even more unusual. A similar case of a teenager buried face-down in front of a church was found at the archaeological site of Pava near Siena,” Roascio told Discovery News. 
 
 “A precise dating of the skeleton and further research on similar burials might help in finding more clues,” Roascio said. 
 
 According to Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board, prone burials are not as rare as it may seem and have occurred across the world from 26,000 years ago up to the early 20th century. 
 
 The author of the first global study on face-down burials, Arcini has recorded more than 600 bodies who had suffered the indignity of a face-down burial from 215 grave sites. Such data suggests the phenomenon is “a conscious act, a deep-seated form of human behavior occurring in all cultures and religions,” Arcini said. 
 
 “There is a clear pattern indicating that prone burials were used for those who were different,” she added. 
 
 The researcher also recorded a case of a prone burial in front of a church. 
 
 “It was an individual male dating to the medieval period. He was killed by both sword and crossbow,” Arcini told Discovery News. 
 
 “He was buried in a cist and a bracelet partly made of gold around his wrist indicated that his social position was high,” she added
– Think phallic graffiti art exclusively belongs to the baseless present? Think again. An archaeologist has uncovered what the Guardian touts as the earliest erotic graffiti on the planet, found in Greece—and predating, in one case, even Athens' Acropolis. Since 2011, Dr. Andreas Vlachopoulos has been directing fieldwork on the Aegean island of Astypalaia, and the professor may have given the students working with him a little more insight than he'd at first intended when he happened upon extremely explicit erotica chiseled into the limestone rocks that line the cape. In one instance, dating back to 5th century BC, two gigantic penises are etched next to the name Dion; in another, dating to 6th century BC, one man boasted: "Nikasitimos was here mounting Timiona." "We know that in ancient Greece sexual desire between men was not a taboo," Vlachopoulos tells the Guardian. "But this graffiti … is not just among the earliest ever discovered. By using the verb in the past continuous [tense], it clearly says that these two men were making love over a long period of time, emphasizing the sexual act in a way that is highly unusual in erotic artwork." One theory is that soldiers were once stationed at this outpost overlooking the bay; other carvings include that of ships, daggers, and wave-symbolizing spirals. Either way Astypalaia, best known for what Archaeology International called "the largest ancient children’s cemetery in the world," with at least 2,700 infant burials identified in one place, can now add ancient porn among its claims to fame. (Meanwhile, in Italy, art restorers have been accused of scrubbing away the erotic...)