World’s oldest sunken city discovered off Greek coast

The legendary land of Atlantis may get all the attention, but there’s a sunken city far older than its mythological counterpart.

Pavlopetri is estimated to be around 5,000 years old, but it was only discovered in the 20th century and experts continue to uncover its secrets and treasures.

The Bronze Age city was first identified off the coast of the southern Peloponnese region of Greece in 1904 by a geologist named Folkion Negris.

However, the site remained largely unexplored until 1967, when Nicholas Flemming of the University of Southampton’s Institute of Oceanography rediscovered the site.

The following year, Fleming, accompanied by a group of archaeologists from Cambridge University, spent six weeks studying the sunken city, which lies submerged in about three to four metres (10 to 13 feet) of water. IFL Sciences reports.

The researchers then mapped the ancient city, which included at least 15 separate buildings, as well as courtyards, streets and tombs.

They also recovered a number of objects from the seabed, including pottery, blades and a small bronze figurine which they dated to between 2800 and 1180 BC. However, the buildings in the city itself date to around 1650 to 1180 BC.

A diver explores the submerged remains of Pavlopetri, which include parts of what was once a large rectangular building(Jon Henderson and the Pavlopetri Project)

You might think that the discovery of a long-lost city buried beneath the waters would generate some excitement. But in reality, it took 40 years for the site of Pavlopetri to receive more attention.

In 2009, an international team of experts from the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the Hellenic Centre for Maritime Research and the University of Nottingham began a five-year project to excavate and explore the city in detail.

During their investigation, the team discovered an additional 9,000 square meters (97,000 square feet) of new buildings, including a large rectangular hall and structures lining a previously hidden street, IFL Sciences Remarks.

They also unearthed ceramics that confirm the city’s existence during the Mycenaean period (the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece), as well as evidence suggesting it was occupied from around 3000 BC until 1100 BC, during which time it would have had a population of around 500 to 2,000 people.

The circumstances that ultimately led Pavlopetri to the bottom of the sea remain unknown. Some experts, however, believe that it may have been swallowed up by an earthquake around 1000 BC or 375 AD.

But given that the city predates Plato’s allegorical tale of Atlantis, some have enthusiastically suggested that Pavlopetri was the true inspiration for the glittering “lost” continent that still captures our imagination today.

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