HOT NEWS !

Photo Dmitry Gorn
 

By Olga Gertcyk - The Siberian Times

Siberian scientists make discovery of 2,500 year old Saka settlement in up to 23 metres of water in Kyrgyzstan.

The new find at the lake is separate from the discovery in 2007 of the ruins of an ancient metropolis of roughly the same age and Scythian burial mounds under its waters.

Divers from Tomsk State University say they have located another 'previously unknown' outpost of the ancient world, along with 200 artifacts from this long-lost culture. Our exclusive pictures show these finds.

A piece of a large ceramic pot found in the lake has a stamp on it written in Armenian and Syrian scripts, which, if confirmed, gives credence to the theory that an Armenian monastery was on this site in Medieval times, it is claimed.

An intriguing version is that this remote lake was the last resting place of evangelist St Matthew, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, and the find may support a theory that an Armenian monastery once existed here at which his relics were supposedly buried.

Dmitry Gorn, director of Tomsk scuba diving 'Club SKAT TSU', who led the diving team, said the inscribed pot fragment was 'truly unique'.

'Experts are now working on the identification of the writings on the stamps, but it's supposed to be Armenian-Syrian script,' he said.

'If that proves to be correct, it will be further evidence that there was an Armenian monastery on Issyk-Kul in 14th century where, according to the legends, relics of Matthew were stored.'

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By Jeff Karoub - CTV News

Marine archaeologists are diving deep into Lake Huron's past by creating 3-D images of the many shipwrecks resting far below the surface, giving researchers and the public a far more detailed look at these hidden historical treasures than traditional photos or video can provide.

The researchers have begun mapping shipwrecks in the only freshwater national sanctuary with imaging technology that's getting its first full-fledged, deep-water workout by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which manages the 4,300 square-mile Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary with the state of Michigan.

They are rapidly creating accurate 3-D images of the sunken vessels by feeding a series of photos into a software program.

Researchers have been photographing and shooting video of the wrecks for years, but until now lacked the ability to quickly, accurately and cheaply create more illuminating 3-D images, particularly with the limited budget and time they have on dives of at least 130 feet.

The new images are a great benefit, allowing them to assess and monitor the wrecks with a precision that can detect even minute changes over time. 

"This is the first project we've really rolled it out on," said Joe Hoyt, the diver in charge of the imaging technique known as photogrammetry.

"The cool thing about this is it's photo-realistic but it's also perfect 3-D, so you're seeing all sides of it. And it's perfectly scaled.

It's a really amazing, accurate tool for measuring and monitoring, and the biggest benefit is the time it takes to develop is very, very small."

Hoyt and team members recently spent several days aboard the Storm, a Great Lakes-based environmental research vessel, as part of an excursion to eight deep-water dive sites in the sanctuary's expanded territory that extends to the maritime border with Canada.

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By WBGraeme - West Briton


An archaeological dig will try to find the mass grave of more than 200 people who drowned in a disastrous shipwreck off The Lizard.

The National Trust has teamed up with experts from Bournemouth University, Maritime Archaeological Sea Trust (MAST) and The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society to survey Pistil meadow.

In November of 1721, 207 sailors lost their lives in a ferocious storm when their military transport galley, the Royal Anne, hit rocks and sank off Lizard Point.

Three people survived by clinging to wreckage. Among the dead was Lord Belhaven, who was leaving Britain to take up his newly-appointed posting as governor of Barbados in mysterious circumstances after the untimely death of his wife.

The Royal Anne was designed by the Marquis of Carmarthen and launched in 1709 as a small and speedy warship, designed to be powered by oar or sail so as not to be outmanoeuvred by pirates.

Her military postings had included protecting Russian trade off Norway, combating notorious Morocco-based pirates the Rovers of Sallee, and cruising Scottish waters during the Jacobite rebellion.

The wreck was found close inshore in the 1970s by divers who first located two guns, but its identity was only clinched in the 1990s by the discovery of silver cutlery with the Belhaven family crest.

The wreck site was protected in 1993 although the rocks and huge Atlantic swells meant only a scattering of objects survived. Other finds have included coins, watch parts, copper bowls and cannon shot.

It is believed the crew were buried, as was customary at the time, in un-consecrated ground.
 

Full article...

By Robert Kellaway - Sunday Express

Vincent Woolsgrove reported finding five 17th-century cannons during the summer of 2007 but said just two came from the wreck of the warship London, which sank off Southend in Essex in 1665.

The other three, he claimed, he had found in international waters off the coast of Kent. The 48-year-old was awarded the title of the three Dutch cannons because the Maritime and Coastguard Agency was unable to prove they were property of the Crown.

Woolsgrove then sold them to a US collector for more than £50,000. But a two-year investigation by the MCA established that the cannons were issued to Dutch ships in the 1650s and captured by the English in battle.

The MCA, together with Kent and Essex Police and Historic England (formerly English Heritage) found that the three Dutch cannons had been issued to the Dutch vessels Groote Liefde and St Mattheus.

They attacked the English fleet during the first Anglo-Dutch War in 1653 but the vessels were captured by the English and the cannons taken as prizes.

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By Eric Russell - Portland Press Herald

The principal researcher for failed treasure hunter Greg Brooks of Gorham conceded to a federal investigator that the two carried out a “scheme to defraud investors” who were bankrolling the salvage of a shipwreck off Cape Cod.

Edward Michaud of Framingham, Massachusetts, said Brooks “pressured him to alter documents based on pressure that Sea Hunters (Brooks’ salvage company) was facing with potential investors who were interested in the Port Nicholson.”

Those revelations were contained in an affidavit unsealed Thursday that was filed in U.S. District Court in December seeking a warrant to search Brooks’ home and business on Gray Road in Gorham.

Although Brooks has not been charged with a crime, the investigator, William Johnston of the National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of Inspector General, wrote that probable cause exists that Brooks and his company “committed a criminal offense,” specifically wire fraud, false statements and forgery of ship’s papers.

The search of Brooks’ property, including documents and computers, has already happened. Any charges against Brooks would come in the form of a criminal complaint or grand jury indictment.

He also could settle before charges are filed. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined Thursday to comment on the case.

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From the Korea Joongang Daily

Korea has found a sunken ship from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) for the first time.

Although Joseon was the country’s most recent kingdom, and the sea has always been an important transportation route for the country, Korea has never found a shipwreck from the entire span of the dynasty.

Koreans have discovered 12 ancient sunken ships so far, 11 from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) and one from the Unified Silla Period (676-935).

Researchers from the National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage said Wednesday that a ship they found in waters off Mado Island in South Chungcheong last year was indeed from the Joseon era.

The key to dating the ship came from 140 pieces of Buncheong ceramics found on the ship during underwater excavation.

Buncheong ware was produced during the first 200 years of the Joseon Dynasty and embodies the transition from Goryeo celadon to Joseon porcelain.

Based on the 140 pieces of Buncheong ceramics, researchers are certain that the ship sank between 1400 and the 1420s. Some of the ceramics are engraved with the abbreviation “Naeseom,” which refers to Naeseomsi, a government organization that oversaw items used within the royal court.

According to Park Kyung-ja, an expert in ceramics, Naeseomsi was likely set up in 1403. The government mandated that items being shipped to the royal court be engraved with the mark of the royal organization in 1407.

“The techniques and patterns of the ceramics,” Park said, “also match those of the ceramics made between the late Goryeo period and the 1420s.”

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By Kitty Foster - Wessex Archaeology

In the early 1700s a Dutch ship was lost on the notoriously dangerous rocks of the Farne Islands, off Britain’s east coast.

Since then the wreck has lain at the bottom of the sea, hidden and forgotten, until the 1970s when divers from the local Tyneside British Sub Aqua Club came across a large collection of cannons scattered across the seabed.

The club undertook a measured survey of the site. In 2013 Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by English Heritage (now Historic England) to revisit the wreck site and update the survey.

We worked closely with the local divers who had found the site, and undertook both sonar and hand-measured survey, helping us to understand the site more clearly than ever before, as reported on the BBC.

Earlier this year we went back to give a talk to the local divers about our results, see our blog about the evening.

As well as our normal survey methods, the survey in 2013 gave us another opportunity to use a fairly new technique called photogrammetry.

This is fantastic for underwater archaeology and allows us to create realistic 3D models of parts of the site.

We have now put our 3D models online ahead of our upcoming talk about the wreck at the Ordnance Society’s Guns from the Sea conference on the 5th September.

These models are a great tool in helping us to rapidly record and understand these amazing artefacts, and now you can see them in all their detail through your browser !

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From The Washington Post

Diver William Bartlett had just started exploring a 300-year-old shipwreck with a metal detector late last month in the waters off Florida’s Atlantic Coast when he found his first Spanish gold coin.

Then one coin became two, and two became so many he had to stuff them into his diving glove.

When he resurfaced, “every fingertip was stacked with gold coins, and we knew then we were into something super special,” the captain of his boat, Jonah Martinez, said Thursday.

Over the next two days, Martinez, Bartlett and another treasure hunter, Dan Beckingham, found 350 coins worth $4.5 million, the most valuable find from the 1715 shipwreck site in recent decades.

Eleven treasure-laden ships that made up the 1715 Fleet were heading to Spain from Havana, Cuba, on July 31, 1715, when they encountered a hurricane off Florida’s central coast.

The winds and waves smashed the ships onto reefs, claiming as many as 1,000 lives in one of colonial Spain’s biggest maritime disasters off Florida.

Now it’s turning out to be a treasure trove.

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