When I first read about the Antikithera mechanism as a kid, the story was that it was found by “sponge divers”. I pictured a couple kids my age in a rowboat or something, goofing off on a summer day, in ten feet of water.
In those days sponge diving was an industrial affair, with brutal working conditions and a very high mortality rate, because “the bends” wasn’t properly understood, and primitive dive gear.
If you ever see the movie “Beyond the 12 Mile Reef”, you will get a good understanding of sponge divers around Tarpon Springs, Florida I think.
They wore the old round head hard diving equipment and yes it was dangerous work. I think these were Greek divers.