The Ionian sea off the coast of Albania has been cutoff from the world for some time due to the area being under communist control. Recently researchers from the U.S. and Albania have been combing the waters searching for lost shipwrecks. They have already uncovered various wrecks that consist of Greek ship dating from the 6th to the 3rd century. They have discovered numerous pottery crafts that date back to the 6th century. they were found in a wrecked merchant ship 1.8 miles off the coast. They craft were possibly made in the Greek city of Corinth. If the the dating is correct the pottery would be only the 5th of its kind ever discovered in the world. They have also found a 4th century B.C. amphora and roof tiles, a north african jar from the 1st to 3rd century A.D. The team also found a sunken ship carrying a complete load of tiles which has never been discovered. In an attempt protect the sites from looting the team is keeping the locations a secret. Mission leader George Robb estimates that if everything found was excavated a new museum would be need to house it all. The team has search about 84 square miles of a 220 mile coastline. Each day of work costs an estimated $25,000. After the 5 year search the team will discuss the prospect of excavating the material properly with robotic submarines and divers. I think that anytime new discoveries are made they are significant because it helps us learn about the human culture and they way people lived long ago. Also the amount of money that is available for items such as these is surprising and often interesting. The area was cutoff from research for so long because of communist control and to finally search the area and find so much lost artifacts is amazing. 

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