HOT NEWS !

By Ofri Ilani

At the bottom of the sea, some 300 meters west of the Atlit fortress, lies one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of the Mediterranean basin.

About 20 years ago, archaeologists discovered a complex of ancient buildings and ancient graves with dozens of skeletons at the underwater site of Atlit-Yam.

The team of marine archaeologists that excavated the site, headed by Dr. Ehud Galili of the Israel Antiquities Authority, came to the conclusion that an ancient settlement once existed there, but sank beneath the surface of the sea some 8,000 years ago.

The finds at the site, including goat and pig bones and wheat seeds, indicate that it was a well-established community whose residents supported themselves by agriculture, hunting, fishing and animal husbandry.

Over the past few months, a major argument has erupted among researchers over what caused the village and the surrounding region to flood.

A few months ago, a team of geologists from Pisa, Italy published a paper that offers a dramatic theory about how the ancient settlement met its end.

They claim that the settlement was submerged all at once by a tsunami in the Mediterranean, causing the death of dozens of its inhabitants.

This theory attributes the tsunami to something that happened thousands of kilometers away.

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By Philip Ewig


On the brink of retirement, the Navy’s only nuclear-powered research submarine will join the hunt this summer for the wreck of one of the most famous U.S. Navy warships in history — the frigate Bonhomme Richard, from which Capt. John Paul Jones had not yet begun to fight.

The Ocean Technology Foundation of Groton, Conn., will work with the submarine NR-1 starting in June to search the North Sea for the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard, which dueled off the English coast for almost four hours in 1779 with the British frigate Serapis.

At one point, when the American frigate had taken heavy damage, Capt. Richard Pearson of the Serapis is said to have shouted a question to Jones about whether he had lowered, or “struck” his flag, showing surrender.
Jones’ apocryphal reply: “I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I strike !”

Jones and his crew won the battle, taking the Serapis as their prize, but the Bonhomme Richard was so badly damaged that it drifted for about 36 hours and then sank.
 

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By Philip Ewig


Mensun Bound, the Oxford archaeologist dubbed by colleagues Indiana Jones of the Deep, is gunning for the Tower of London on his latest sea-faring expedition.

The Oxford researcher is returning to investigate an Elizabethan ship that sank off the Channel Islands, which has given up an array of treasures including muskets, swords and body armour from the age of Drake.

But now he is aiming to deliver one of the great cannons from the wreck to the Tower of London, along with other finds and artefacts.

The ship sank off Alderney in 1592 and is considered to be the most important Tudor find since the Mary Rose.

It was carrying munitions and dispatches from Elizabeth I's greatest minister, Lord Burghley, to an English army in France.

Many of the finds from the wreck are on display at the museum in Alderney. But one of the great cannons and other pieces are to go on temporary exhibition in the Tower of London, once England's greatest arsenal and manufacturer of military equipment.
 

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From Famagusta Gazette


The first amphorae from a 4th century BC ship have been brought to the surface by a team of Cypriot experts.

It is believed that the commercial vessel, possibly carrying wine from the Greek island of Chios, sunk off Cyprus’ southern coast. It is said to have been carrying about 500 amphorae.

Dr. Stella Demesticha, Visiting Lecturer of Underwater Archaeology at the University of Cyprus, in charge of the research programme, has said that the wreck lies at a depth of 45 metres and the apmphorae had to be brought to the surface for study.

We cannot be sure of its journey, nor of its destination but we believe it has passed by Chios and other islands in the Aegean around the middle of the 4th century BC and then arrived in Cyprus, she explained.

She noted that so far scientists have not located anything else in the shipwreck except amphorae, adding that the shipwreck is under guard.

Wine from Chios was believed to be of excellent quality. Of course no wine has been found but we are almost certain that the amphorae were filled with this very good quality red wine, she said.

By Emily Zeugner


Last summer Roy Evans, history buff, outdoorsman and "amateur treasure hunter," set off in search of buried riches.

Five hours a day, he scoured the fine, white sands of Georgia's Tybee Island and within a week he'd struck gold: 23 separate pieces including two crosses, 12 rings, a handful of medallions and broaches and one chain necklace — a bounty worth several thousand dollars at least.

Roy Evans switched entirely to beaches for his treasure hunting about 15 years ago, when he 'just got too old to fool around with picks and mosquitoes and snakes' on Revolutionary War battlefields.

The change has proved to be a lucrative one: all told he's found 150 diamond rings on beaches, including two that were appraised for nearly $4,000 each.

"It was amazing, what I found that week," said Evans, of Greer, S.C. "It might have been a new record for me."

But the loot wasn't buried by pirates.

The jewelry, like countless other valuables all over the country, was lost by distracted and forgetful sunbathers, tucked into a shoe or under a corner of a beach blanket before a swim only to be misplaced in the confusion at the end of the day.

To cash in, Evans needed only luck, a little patience and his trusty MineLab metal detector.

This summer, amateur treasure hunters predict the beaches will be filled with people just like Evans.

Lured by the skyrocketing price of gold — now well over $900 an ounce — and the thrill of serendipity, new would-be treasure diggers are joining the ranks of experienced beach "metal detectionists," as they call themselves, in what might be a modern-day gold rush.

By Lewis Smith


The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover story to camouflage the real mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines.

When Bob Ballard led a team that pinpointed the wreckage of the liner in 1985 he had already completed his main task of finding out what happened to USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.

Both of the United States Navy vessels sank during the 1960s, killing more than 200 men and giving rise to fears that at least one of them, Scorpion, had been sunk by the USSR.

Dr Ballard, an oceanographer, has admitted that he located and inspected the wrecks for the US Navy in top secret missions before he was allowed to search for the Titanic.

Only once he had used his new underwater robot craft to map the submarine wreck sites was he able to use it to crisscross the North Atlantic seabed to pinpoint the last resting place of the luxury liner. It meant he had only 12 days to find the Titanic.

By Jeff Hecht


Robot submarines designed to hunt for underwater mines showed potential as underwater archaeological treasure hunters last week, turning up several new artefacts off the coast of Rhode Island, US.

Several military AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) took part in the archaeological treasure hunt as part of a US Navy event called AUVfest. The contest suggests that robotic submersibles could find many non-military applications as they become cheaper.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sought to test the ability of navy subs to investigate shipwrecks and inspect undersea cables and pipelines.

During the event, the subs discovered eight previously unknown objects associated with the wreck of 18th century frigate, HMS Cerberus, which was scuttled by its British captain in August 1778 during the American Revolution.
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From UCLA Institute and other sources


It is with deepest sadness that we mourn the untimely death on May 14, 2008 of UCLA Art History alumna Dr. Roxanna M. Brown, 62, world-renowned expert on SEA ceramics, curator of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University and editor of their excellent newsletter.

She died in Seattle reportedly of an infection brought on by a perforated ulcer while in federal custody on a very dubious indictment.

She had gone to Seattle to present a paper on SEA ceramics at a conference co-sponsored by UCLA and the University of Washington.

An Asian-antiquities dealer arrested in Seattle on wire-fraud charges died in federal custody from infection and inflammation caused by a perforated gastric ulcer, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office.

Brown had been arrested a week ago by federal agents on an grand-jury indictment in Los Angeles. She was charged with wire fraud and was a key figure — and the first arrest — in a long-running investigation into alleged Asian-antiquities smuggling and fraud, according to court papers.