Ancient marine treasure found near old Israeli port

Israeli divers have recently discovered ancient treasure in the sea near the ancient port of Caesarea, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Monday.

Two amateur divers discovered a marine cargo that included statues, thousands of coins and other finds, in what the authority called "the largest assemblage of marine artifacts to be discovered in the past 30 years."

The two passed their findings to the IAA, which estimated they belonged to a merchant ship that sank in the late Roman period 1,600 years ago.

Archeologists from the IAA who arrived to inspect the area together with the divers found further remains of the ship, including iron anchors, remains of wooden anchors and items used for operating the vessel.

"Many of the artifacts are bronze and in an extraordinary state of preservation," the IAA said in a statement on Monday.

Among the findings are "a bronze lamp depicting the image of the sun god Sol, a figurine of the moon goddess Luna, a lamp in the image of the head of an African slave, and fragments of three life-size bronze cast statutes."

Jacob Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the IAA, said the findings are "of historical significance."

"The location and distribution of the ancient finds on the seabed indicate that a large merchant ship was carrying a cargo of metal slated for recycling, which apparently encountered a storm at the entrance to the harbor and drifted until it smashed into the seawall and the rocks," Sharvit said.

He added that metal statues are rare finds since they usually would have been melted down and recycled in ancient times. Endit