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From the Earth Times

Discovered under centuries-old layers of dirt in 1948, then submerged under 20 metres of water, the ancient city of Seuthopolis is to emerge once again in a bold rescue project.

The magnificently preserved city, founded by the Thracian king Seuthes III in 323 BC, was discovered in central Bulgaria during the construction of a dam on the Tundzha river.

Despite the stunning discovery, Communist authorities went ahead with the dam and created the Koprinka reservoir six years later, in 1954, flooding Seuthopolis under 150 million cubic metres of water.

Now, a 150-million-euro (192-million-dollar) project by Bulgarian architect Jeko Tilev aims to right the wrong and expose the polis at the bottom of the reservoir to archaeologists and tourist by creating a dry well 20 metres deep and 420 metres across.

Once in place, the 1.27-kilometre wall, effectively a round pier, would allow further exploration and the reconstruction of five hectares now at the bottom of the reservoir, 160 kilometres east of Sofia near Kazanlak.

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By William Mullen

When the pirate ship Whydah broke up in a fierce storm off Cape Cod in 1717, it sank carrying the plunder from 54 ships it had seized over the last year. Of the 146 men aboard, 144 died.

For years the story of those pirates lay buried with the wreck and its treasure under 30 feet of sand—a tale of violent men who nonetheless built for themselves a mini-society that shed racial prejudice and operated on democratic principles.

A traveling exhibit opening Friday at the Field Museum uses artifacts salvaged from the Whydah—the first and only verified pirate shipwreck ever located and recovered—to shed light on the lives of these men. Objects on display include weapons, jewelry, gold and silver coins and ingots as well as clothing, everyday utensils and tools.

Named for a slave port in Africa, the Whydah (wee-dah) represented the best available maritime technology when it was built in England in 1715—a swift, powerfully armed ship designed to transport slaves to the New World.

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By Sarah Moore

Like a toy surprise in a box of Cracker Jacks - er, slightly water-logged Cracker Jacks, that is - a Civil War era shipwreck turned up among Hurricane Ike debris.

The discovery, thought to be previously uncharted, was made by crews last week scanning the bays around Galveston to chart debris.

While the find came as a kind of fun surprise to the contractors doing the work, State Marine Archeologist Steve Hoyt was pleased - but not terribly surprised.

"There have been nearly 2,000 ship wrecks (in Texas coastal waters), with a lot of those concentrated around the Galveston area," Hoyt said.

A surprising amount of Texas history is underwater. With many immigrants arriving here by ship, along with the goods and supplies they needed for frontier life, traveling by water was common.

The bays of the Galveston area were particularly busy.

"Much of the history of Texas is maritime history," Hoyt said.

Hoyt added it's possible the shipwreck had been buried in mud and Ike's surge might have uncovered it. Or, it could just be that it had simply been overlooked until now.

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By James Varley

Alderney’s President of the States has called for HMS Victory’s exact resting place to be revealed.

In a letter to The Times, Sir Norman Browse, pictured, said independent confirmation was needed to say whether the 265-year-old wreck lay in British, French, international or Alderney waters.

Sir Norman also suggested that the site be protected and asked the Ministry of Defence to ensure that professional archaeologists, working to archaeological rather than profit-seeking strategies, assessed the wreck.

Earlier this month, Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration announced that it found the wreck of Victory last May. It had become separated from escorting vessels as they returned from fighting the French fleet off Portugal in 1744.

According to Odyssey, the 175ft wooden man-of-war’s final resting place is around 100km from the Channel Islands. Before the announcement, however, it was thought that Victory sank off Les Casquets, west of Alderney.

Victory, which went down with the loss of all 1,100 officers and ratings, provided the inspiration for the ship commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson several decades later.

Sir Norman, who is chairman of the Alderney Maritime Trust, wrote: ‘Some years ago Alderney established a maritime trust to protect and excavate any wrecks discovered in its waters. The non-profit making trust hoped that one day it would find, study and excavate Victory.

By Lefteris Papadimas and Daniel Flynn

A corroded mechanism recovered by sponge divers from a sunken wreck near the Greek island of Antikythera in 1902 changed the study of the ancient world forever.

The Antikythera Mechanism, a system of bronze gears from the 2nd century BC, was used to calculate the date of the Olympic Games based on the summer solstice.

Its mechanical complexity was unequalled for 1,000 years, until the cathedral clocks of the Middle Ages.

Archaeologists believe hundreds more wrecks beneath the eastern Mediterranean may contain treasures, but a new law opening Greece's coastline to scuba diving has experts worried that priceless artifacts could disappear into the hands of treasure hunters.

"The future of archaeology in this part of the world is in the sea," said marine archaeologist Harry Tzalas. "This law is very dangerous, it opens the way to the looting of antiquities from the seabed which we don't even know exist."

Greece's 1932 antiquities law says all artifacts on land and in the sea belong to the state, but it does not regulate scuba diving, developed in the 1940s by Frenchman Jacques Cousteau.

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By Helen Fields

For a few days back in July 2007, it was hard for archaeologist Deborah Carlson to get any work done at her site off the Aegean coast of western Turkey.

She was leading an underwater excavation of a 2,000-year-old shipwreck, but the Turkish members of her crew had taken time off to vote in national elections. So things were quiet at her camp on an isolated cape called Kızılburun.

The shipwrecks' main cargo was 50 tons of marble—elements of a huge column sent on an ill-fated journey to a temple, Carlson thought. But she didn't know which temple, so she used all her days off to drive around the area looking at possibilities.

There were a lot—western Turkey, once part of ancient Greece and later in the Roman Empire, is home to sites like Ephesus and Troy.

But Carlson had narrowed down her choices to a list of nearby temples that were in use in the first century BC—the likely date of the shipwrecks' column.
 

From Hurriyet Daily News

The world’s second underwater "Archeopark" will be created in İzmir’s Karaburun district by the 360 Degree Historical Research Foundation, Ankara University and İzmir Underwater Foundation.

A ship prepared in Urla within the Mordoğan Yapay Resif Projesi will be sunk in Mordoğan at the end of the month. This will create a platform for the study of underwater archaeology, and contribute to the development of diving tourism. 

"The sinking in Mordoğan will be the second example in the world after that in Kaş," archaeologist Osman Erkurt said. "We think the underwater archeopark to be constructed here will be very important for scientific research. This project is being conducted with the contribution of Ankara University and the Urla and Mordoğan municipalities." 

"As widely known, amateur divers are not allowed to conduct research on ancient sunken ships. This will facilitate these divers to widen their field of specialization," said Professor Hayat Erkanal, chairman of Limantepe Excavations. 

"The Mordoğan district is very important for excavations. Erkanal is struggling to make people conscious of our history by revealing our historical values so they can understand its importance.

We, as the local authorities, will cooperate in this pursuit," said M. Selçuk Karaosmanoğlu, Urla mayor. 

"We initiated this important project to attract amateur divers around İzmir to this district. We aim to turn our district into an underground center and publicize this value to the whole world," explained Mordoğan Mayor Ahmet Çakır.

By Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès

The French writer Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès tells how he pursued his dream of uncovering “fragments of raw beauty long since forgotten” from the depths of the sea, an emotional experience very different from a treasure hunt.

Between 1986 and 2001, the novelist took part in underwater archaeological excavations off the coast of Libya, exploring that “unseen part of ourselves” which must be carefully and respectfully protected.

It all began in 1985. Not long returned from his first terrestrial dig with the French archaeological mission in Libya — one of the privileges of friendship — Claude Sintes [Director of the Museum of Ancient Arles] wasted no time in sharing his experiences with me: coming from Apollonia, he had seen Cyrene, Sabratha and Leptis Magna — Greek and Roman remains surpassing in size everything we knew or could have imagined.