Introduction
For the archaeologist on land, the main dangers come from land developers. The marine archaeologist, however, must beware of the sea as they try to preserve shipwrecks from the pounding waves. Each fragile wreck is a unique time capsule of our past: encrusted cannons, ancient wine bottles and other historical treasures. Treasures that the sea is loath to give up. This is the story of underwater archaeology.
'Alexander the Great is reputed to have gone down in a diving bell...'
Those involved in a shipwreck may lose everything in the catastrophe, including perhaps their lives. But the remains of sunken vessels and their contents, even if broken up and scattered, provide future generations with unique windows into the past. Each site represents a moment frozen in time, and every item recovered from it is part of a vast three-dimensional archaeological jigsaw. Archaeologists know they can never complete it, but by analysing the evidence they find, and fitting it into the jigsaw's framework, they come ever closer to their goal of constructing a true picture of the ship before it became a wreck. Each has a special story to tell, and is therefore a fragile and irreplaceable microcosm of its times.
Diving on sunken ships has happened throughout history. Alexander the Great is reputed to have gone down in a diving bell, while Roman urinatores (free divers) apparently salvaged cargo from a wreck 20m deep off the south of France.
The aqualung opened the underwater world to diving adventurers like Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau in the 1940s. Although many ancient wrecks were found, little thought was given to their archaeological significance. It was not until 1960 that a young archaeologist, George Bass, teamed up with explorer Peter Throckmorton to investigate a Bronze Age shipwreck at Cape Gelidonya in Turkey. Bass learned to dive and showed that archaeology could be done underwater to the same standards as on land. Bass's team is now excavating a Bronze Age shipwreck of the 14th century BC at Uluburun off Turkey.Since then techniques have been refined, but the principles remain unchanged. Many classical wrecks have been investigated in the Mediterranean, such as the Roman wine carrier with 6000 amphoras off Madrague de Giens near Marseilles.
Underwater archaeologists working around the British Isles have investigated several wrecks of the Spanish Armada, such as the Girona off Antrim and La Trinidad Valencera off Donegal. The biggest project has been the excavation and raising of Henry VIII's battleship, Mary Rose which sank in the Solent in 1545. The largely intact hull of the Dutch East Indiaman 'Amsterdam' was found off the English town of Hastings. The boat had been swallowed into the sand when she had beached there in 1748. The wreck has been the focus of investigations for 30 years now. Current projects include the Swan, a small Cromwellian warship, which was lost off the west of Scotland in 1653.
Published: 2001-01-01
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