PAVLOPETRI A SUNKEN CITY

                                                  

 

Pavlopetri or Paulopetri is a small islet off the coast of the coast of Laconia, in the southern Peloponnese, where ancient history meets the blue of the Mediterranean Sea.

 

This beautiful place, which remains unknown to the majority of people, hides one of the most amazing stories of Greek history, since it is the oldest ancient Greek city, that has ever been discovered underwater.

 

Its name is Greek for “Paul’s Stone” is related to St Paul one of Lord Jesus Christ’s greatest apostles and martyrs who travelled all over the world spreading Christianity, during the 1^st century AD.

 

The city’s long history, however, spans nearly 5.000 years back into antiquity, since the region was known to have been inhabited during the earliest years of Greek history.

 

Discovered in 1967 by Dr Nicholas Fleming, Geoarchaeologist from the Institute of Oceanology of the University of Southampton, this ancient Greek town is now the oldest underwater “lost city” in the Mediterranean and one of the oldest such cities in the world.

 

In 1968, a year after Pavlopetri was discovered, a team from the University of Cambridge surveyed the remains of the ancient city.  They produced a plan of a prehistoric town, thought to be Mycenaean, 300 m x 150 m, lying under one to four metres of water. At least fifteen separate buildings, consisting of houses. courtyards, streets, two-chamber tombs, and at least thirty-seven cist graves were identified.

 

The under site continued southward on Pavlopetri island, on top of which the remains of walls and archaeological material were still visible.

 

 

In 1968. Pottery, obsidian and cert blades and a bronze figurine were found on the seabed.  In 2009, the University of Nottingham, through the British School in Athens permit, began an 5-year collaboration project with the Ephorate of Underwater Activities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Hellenic Centre of Marine Research to outline the history of the submerged town and the reasons for its sinking.

 

The research consisted of detailed underwater survey of the remains, using a robotic total station and sector scan sonar technology, along side sampling the material across the site.  Working with experts in acoustic sonar and latest digital survey techniques, archaeologists have been able to record the entire city,  which covers over 80.000 square miles.

 

In 2009, over 9000 square metres of buildings were discovered, including a large, the rectangular wall and a street lined with buildings. The ceramic discovered confirm the Mycenaean occupation as early as 3500 BC, making Pavlopetri over 5000 years old, the oldest known submerged town in the world.

 

The Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture has proposed a plan, recently, approved by the Central Archaeological Council introducing underwater routes for swimmers over the submerged prehistoric settlements.    

 

The city of Pavlopetri is part of the underwater cultural heritage as defined by UNESCO.  The UNESCO Convention  of the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage aims at preventing the destruction or loss of historic and cultural information and looting.  It helps countries to protect their underwater cultural heritage with an international framework.