Mysterious mediterranean marine artifact

August 11, 2014 11:37 PM

Haven't had any luck in identifying this object found, at about 5m depth, just off Ammouso beach on Lefkada - some sort of pithos, or something left over from a war? Photos: 1, 2, 3. In a brief, snorkeled dive down, though it looks rather thin, the surface did seem to the touch to possibly be terracotta, and the four regularly placed, circular handles remind me of a pottery feature. Any ideas?
posted by progosk to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

That looks like a broken urchin shell to me.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:33 AM on August 12, 2014

Response by poster: for scale: at the bottom left of Photo 1 there's a large starfish, just under the object; it was at least 1 m across, if not more...
posted by progosk at 5:45 AM on August 12, 2014

Best answer: With the shape and size it looks like a navel mine. It's the 4 circular "handles" - they look and sound like broken off Hertz horns, which are part of the detonation mechanism.

In an area as visited as Ammouso, it sounds more logical that an object found there and left would be more likely to be a war artifact and left alone than pottery, and it's much more probable that an object would be left from the war due to the sheer number of objects from the number of conflicts.
posted by barchan at 8:31 AM on August 12, 2014

Oh, crikey - yes, that's likely the shell of an exploded or rusted out mine. Sorry, the scale threw me.

Needless to say - don't touch!
posted by Happy Dave at 9:14 AM on August 12, 2014