Shipwreck details have been spotlighted due to technological advances used in the bay of Methoni, southwest Greece, and the northern coast of nearby island Sapienza. Findings have revealed more details about the geological features of the seabed and have supplied further details about two of the known shipwrecks there during the time of the Roman era (Sapienza) and the Middle Bronze Age (Methoni).

A statement by the ministry of Culture, states that research in the area had two purposes:

* to locate ancient and historical shipwrecks lying on the bottom of the sea or buried in its sediments;

* the palaeogeographic reconstruction of the bay of Methoni in the last 10,000 years.

Equipment used in the area, included:

* a sub-bottom high-resolution profiler to locate targets buried beneath the surface of the seabed;

* a side-scan sonar to find objects on the seabed surface

* a magnetometer to locate metal objects and magnetic targets such as amphorae

* a multi-beam echo-sounder to map the depth and underwater terrain in detail

The magnetometer used in Mthoni showed that buried metal targets may relate to the ship’s cannon. These will be inspected closely at a later stage. The ministry hopes that the area may serve as an excellent “natural laboratory for the testing and development of new methodologies and technologies in underwater geoarcheology and in the management of underwater archeological sites.”

The research was conducted by the ministry of Culture’s Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities in cooperation with the University of Patras’ Geology department, and its Laboratory of Marine Geology and Oceanography, in particul