Greek boat from 500 BC salvaged off Sicily
by AFP on 30 Jul 2008
Gela on the southern coast of Sicily where the wreck was found SW
An ancient Greek ship dating back to 500BC is recovered from the sea east of Gela, Sicily. The wreck of a Greek boat dating from 500 BC has been brought back up to the surface off the coast of southern Sicily, the Italian news agency ANSA said.
Around 20 ships were involved in the operation to salvage the wreck which experts said had remained in a good state of preservation since its discovery in 1988 because it had been resting on a clay soil seabed.
The wooden Greek boat, which measures 21 metres (65 feet) in length and was wrecked 800 metres off the port of Gela, will first be desalinated in huge freshwater tanks before being sent to Britain to be restored by archaeologists in the southern port of Portsmouth, ANSA said.
'The boat belongs to the patrimony of Sicily but also to that of humanity,' said local culture official Antonello Antinoro.
At the time of the wreck, Gela was a Greek colony.
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