An international team of archaeologists has retrieved more antiquities from a Greek ship that sank some 2,000 years ago off the coast of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea.

The ship was described as the "Titanic of the Ancient World" because it was believed to be the largest ancient shipwreck ever discovered.

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The Antikythera wreck dates from as early as the 1st century B.C. on what was a busy trade route between mainland Greece and Rome. It was first spotted in 1900 by sponge divers who had been blown off course during a storm.

Since then, the site 50 meters deep down a steep underwater slope had yielded a hoard of ancient treasures. Bronze and marble statues, glassware, furniture and jewelries as well as the Antikythera Mechanism, which was dubbed as the world's first computer, were among the finds.

But the underwater excavation came to a halt after one diver died and two others suffered from decompression sickness.

The team of archaeologists now geared with highly advanced equipment revisited the site to discover more secrets of the past.

Over the past three weeks, the archaeologists have created a three-dimensional HD map of the seabed using an autonomous underwater vehicle with stereo cameras. They have also recovered a haul of antiquities which prove that much of the ship's cargo is still preserved beneath the surface of the sand.

In addition, the archaeologists observed that the wreck is scattered over a much larger area than thought, proving that it is indeed the largest ancient shipwreck ever found.

A statement from the Greek Culture Ministry said on Thursday that recovered artifacts include a bronze spear probably from a giant statue, pottery flask that may have been used to contain wine or oil, metal fittings from the 1^st century B.C., and a metal leg from a bed.

The team plans to resume its mission next year to continue the excavation and to recover more of the ship's historical cargo. 

TagsAntikythera, Titanic of the Ancient World, Antikythera Mechanism, Ancient Greek Antikythera