Αρχαίες άγκυρες από τον βυθό του Νότιο Ευβοϊκού

Giorgos Koutsouflakis In A. G. Simosi (ed.) 2018. Βουτιά στα Περασμένα. Η Υποβρύχια Αρχαιολογική Έρευνα, 1976-2014, Athens: 125-152.

The Southern Euboean Gulf Project was a jointed underwater survey undertaken by the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and the Hellenic Institute of the Maritime Archaeology. The aim of the project was to survey large tracts of coastline in the area extended between Sounio, Kavalliani Island and Karystos in search for shipwrecks and traces of ancient navigation and trade. The eleven-year long program (2006-2016) resulted, among the discovery of many shipwrecks, the spotting of many ancient anchors that cover a wide chronological range. This study aims to present the corpus of the 44 anchors located and documented so far in Southern Euboean Gulf and comment to their spatial and chronological distribution.

The vast majority of anchors found and raised were not directly connected to any specific wreck-sites. Like in the rest of the Aegean, anchors appear mostly as isolated finds, abandoned or lost during use. Five anchors belong to the primitive composite stone anchor type and are hypothetically dated to the Bronze Age or the following period of the Dark Ages. They represent a 12,5% of the total amount and have weights that vary from 13 to 77 kilograms. The navigation of the Archaic-Early Classical period is represented by 14 stone stocks (35%), made of marble, limestone or granite that exhibit weights ranging from 6,5 to 48 kilograms. Nine of the samples raised originate from the west side of Kynosoura peninsula (Cape Stomi), a long promontory that forms the eastern barrier of the Marathon Bay.