Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered bronze statues and thousands of coins from a merchant ship that sank off the Mediterranean coast more than 1,600 years ago during the Roman age.
The Israel Antiquities Authority said that the discovery was made several weeks ago by two divers in the Caesarea Harbor.
Other recovered items included a bronze lamp, a figure of the moon goddess Luna, fragments of life-size bronze cast statues, and thousands of coins.
“This giving us some more information about the site, about the type of the ship wreck, we are speaking about 150 to 200 ton of ship with a very large iron anchors. So this is very important information for the Maritime of Caesarea,” said Jacov Sharvit of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Officials say the findings will teach researchers about the way the harbor functioned and how rich the city was at the time.
It’s not the only find in the region; last year divers found a haul of 1,000-year-old gold coins inscribed in Arabic on the sea bed off Israel’s coast.