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| Diver Gemma Smith Photo Credit: Brett Seymour |
Technical diver Gemma Smith is the first woman ever to dive at the world famous Antikythera Shipwreck, which yielded some of the most important ancient sculptures ever to be found on the seabed, as well as the Antikythera mechanism or astrolabe.
Originally thought to be one of the
first forms of a mechanised clock or an astrolabe, it is at times referred to as the world’s oldest known analog computer.
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| The Antikythera Mechanism |
Gemma puts diving first, irrespective of gender and goes on to say that "I want
to say to any women who are thinking of taking up diving, be fearless!
Don't
let the opinions of others hold you back!
The underwater world is magical, so
don't miss the opportunity to experience it!"
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| Sculptures retrieved from the Antikythera Shipwreck |
History of the Antikythera Shipwreck
In October 1900, a team of sponge
divers led by Captain Dimitrios Kondos decided to wait out a severe
storm hampering their return from Africa at the Greek island of Antikythera.
While there, they began diving for sponges off the island's coastline wearing the standard diving dresses — canvas suits and copper helmets – of the time.
Elias Stadiatis was the first to lay eyes on a shipwreck 45 meters
down, who quickly signaled to be pulled to the surface.
He described the
scene as a heap of rotting corpses and horses lying on the sea bed.
Thinking the diver was drunk from the nitrogen in his breathing mix at
that depth, Kondos himself dove, soon returning with the arm of a bronze
statue.
While waiting for the storm to abate the divers retrieved as
many small artifacts from the wreck as they could.
Together with the Greek Education Ministry and the Royal Hellenic
Navy, the sponge divers salvaged numerous artifacts from the waters.
By
the middle of 1901, divers had recovered statues arbitrarily named "the
philosopher", the Youth of Antikythera (Ephebe) of ca.
340 BC, a "Hercules", Ulysses, Diomedes and his horses, an Ermes, an
Apollo, a marble statue of a bull and a bronze lyre, much marvelous
glasswork.
Many other small and common artifacts were also found, and
were brought to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
The death of one diver and the paralysis of some others due to
decompression sickness put an end to work at the site during the summer
of 1901.
The French naval officer and explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau would later dive there, in the fall of 1976, to search and recover many more artifacts.
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| Archaeologists examine artifacts from the world famous Antikythera Shipwreck |
On 17 May 1902, however, the former Minister of Education Spyridon Stais made the most celebrated find at the National Archaeological Museum
in Athens.
When examining the artifacts that had been recovered, he
noticed that a severely corroded piece of bronze had inscriptions and a
gear wheel embedded in it, which proved to be the world's most ancient computer and continues to puzzle archaeologists and scientists to this day.
Here's what Gemma Smith has to say about her experience diving at the Antikythera Shipwreck, during the latest edition of the Antikythera Project, which evolved during the previous weeks.
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| Diver Gemma Smith during a surface interval Photo Credit: Michael Tsimperopoulos |
When did you start diving and why?
I started
diving when I was seventeen.
I'd always been interested in adventure sports,
and had tried skydiving, white water rafting, and bungee jumping among other
things, but none of them really thrilled me, and I always moved on to something
else.
It wasn't till I decided to have a go at scuba that I found my passion!
It felt like I had found something that I really connected with.
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| Gemma Smith cruising with her scooter Photo Credit: Phil Short |
You are the first woman diving at the famous
wreck; how do you feel about it? What would you say to women around the world
who would like to scuba dive but have reservations, or think that it's just a
"man's activity"? How tough is it to scuba dive in demanding
conditions and with elaborate technical gear?
In one way
I'm very proud to say that I'm the first female to dive on the Antikythera
shipwreck.
On the other hand, I think it would perhaps be better to say that
just as a diver I'm proud to be on the wreck.
Once you're in the water, doing
technical dives comes down to skill, practice, and having the right mindset.
Nothing to do with gender! I'd love to get to the point where people see
women's achievement as being incredible purely because of the achievement, not
because of whether the person who did them was male or female.
To all the
women who want to scuba dive but worry that maybe they can't, I'd say 'just go
do it!'.
When I first started diving I was told that I'd never make it as a
technical diver, because of my size and the amount of gear. I'm making it my
mission to prove those people wrong!
Yes, I have to work a little bit harder to
carry the 60+ kg of gear on the surface, but as soon as I'm in the water I
don't even feel it.
I always tell people that if I can do it, they can! You
don't have to be special, just determined.
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| The Antikythera Project Team Photo Credit: Brett Seymour |
Being part of an international team of
archaeologists, scuba experts etc. is surely inspiring. What are your feelings
and thoughts about it?
It's a complete privilege to be here among
some of the most knowledgable people in the world. I'm just trying to absorb
and learn from as many people as possible.
That's the great thing about
opportunities like this.
You get to realise how little you know, and let that
spur you on to learn more.
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| Gemma Smith with lots and lots of diving gear Photo Credit: John Fardoulis |
Imagine that you find a significant
archaeological item during your dives; does this cross your mind? Do you dream
about it?
Of course!
It would be an incredible achievement for the whole team to find some thing
significant.
I think people shouldn't lose sight of the fact that what's been
achieved already is amazing.
We've got a dive team of over ten people diving
every day at 50m of depth on a 2000 year old site.
That's pretty special, and
groundbreaking for what can be achieved in underwater archeology.
Is it your first time diving in Greece? If not,
where have you previously been? What would you say to divers who would like to
visit Greece?
No, this
isn't my first time diving in Greece.
I was lucky enough to spend some time on
the island of Kythera a few months back.
The team were doing some
pre-Antikythera training on another shipwreck, the Mentor, in preparation for
this project.
The history of Greece is amazing, and the warm water and good
visibility makes for fantastic diving.
Describe your daily routine before, during and
after a dive. Scuba diving is a team effort, you have the surface team, your
dive buddy, who happens to be your partner as well.
A lot of
the day is spent preparing gear! We get up early and precheck all the
rebreathers to make sure that they're functioning properly, and are safe to
dive.
Then we load the boat with rebreathers, stages, dry suits and other
accessory equipment needed for the day, including metal detectors, underwater
scooters, and artefact bags.
It's a whole team effort. The archaeologists, the
divers, the cameramen, the boat drivers, it takes every single one of them to
make a project like this work.
My job on the dive is to act as a team bottom
diver and a 'guardian' for the archeological divers.
This allows the expert
archeologists to concentrate on excavations and handling finds, knowing that
someone is watching their back.
It's great
being able to work on jobs like this with my husband. We travel so much for
work, if we didn't work together we'd never see each other!
Once we're on the
boat working though, he's just another team member. I've got my
responsibilities, and he's got his.
There's not a lot of time for hugs and
kisses when you're working at 50m!
