A marble fragment from the Acropolis in Athens has been found in the remains of a ship that sank in 1802, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture.
The ship is the Mentor, a brig that went down southeast of the island of Kythira (also spelled Cythera and Kythera) in the Aegean Sea. The ship was used by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, to move sculptures from the ruins of the Acropolis to Britain, the Greek Ministry of Culture said in a translated statement.
The Acropolis is an elevated area of Athens that contains some of the city’s most important buildings – most notably the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of the city. The sculptures that Lord Elgin removed depicts scenes from Greek mythology, particularly Athena’s birth. It is not certain whether the newly found fragment is from the Parthenon itself or from elsewhere on the Acropolis.
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After the ship sank, Elgin had sponge divers dive down to the wreck. They salvaged many of the sculptures, which were sold to the British Museum in 1816, where they remain today.
Modern archaeologists have excavated the remains of the ship since 2009. The ship itself is mostly broken up, but remains from the 19th century, such as chess setis found. Recent excavations found remains of the ship’s copper plating and of a clay fire that would have been used by the ship’s crew members.
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The ancient sculpture found in the ship is a triangular block of marble with what looks like a peg at the bottom. Modern scholars refer to pieces like this as a “drop,” representatives of the Greek Ministry of Culture said in the statement. It is about 3.7 inches by 1.9 inches (9.3 by 4.7 cm) in size and would have been attached to other blocks somewhere in the Acropolis, possibly on the Parthenon itself.
At the time Lord Elgin removed the sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles or Parthenon Marbles, Greece was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Elgin claimed that he received proper authorization from Ottoman officials to move the sculptures. Greece has requested the return of the sculptures from the British Museum, claiming that Elgin did not have the necessary permission and noting that Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Empire at the time.
The museum has refused, but as of 2021 the museum reportedly had talking about returning the Elgin Marbles to the Greek government. So far no agreement has been reached. One challenge is that UK laws prevent the British Museum from relinquishing some artefacts. This makes it more difficult to return them to Greece.
Conservation and analysis of the recently discovered remains from the shipwreck are ongoing.
