According to the Greek Ministry of Culture, a marble fragment from the Acropolis of Athens was found in the wreckage of a ship that sank the 1802.
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The ship was the Mentor, which sank southeast of Kythera in the Aegean Sea. It was used by Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, to transport sculptures from the ruins of the Acropolis to the United Kingdom, according to a statement from the Ministry.
The Acropolis is a rocky hill in Athens that hosts some of the city's most important monuments, chiefly the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, the city's patron goddess. The sculptures that Elgin removed depict scenes from Greek mythology, especially the birth of Athena.
It has not been clarified whether the new find comes from the Parthenon itself or from another spot of the Acropolis. After the shipwreck, Elgin commissioned sponge divers to dive at the site; they recovered many of the statues, which were sold to the British Museum in 1816, where they remain to this day.
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Modern archaeologists are conducting excavations at the shipwreck from 2009. Although the ship itself has largely deteriorated, objects from the 19th century have been identified, such as a chess set. In the most recent surveys, parts of the ship's copper plating were also found, as well as a clay stove that was probably used by the crew.
The ancient sculpture found on the ship is a triangular marble piece with something that looks like a protrusion at the bottom. According to the Ministry of Culture, modern scholars call such sections “drops”. It measures about 9.3 by 4.7 centimeters and appears to have been incorporated with other stone elements at some point of the Acropolis, possibly even on the Parthenon itself.
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Greece has requested the return of the sculptures from the British Museum, arguing that Elgin did not have the necessary permit when he removed them and noting that at that time the country was under Ottoman occupation.
