The Guardian view on Black Sea shipwrecks: discovering our past | Editorial

Three years of research have produced astonishing results, including the remains of 65 vessels, one thought to be ancient Greek. This should be only the startThe seabed produces archaeological wonders. TheMary Rose, which sank in the Solent in 1545, and theVasa, which capsized in 1633 in the harbour of Stockholm, are just two of the famous ships that have been lifted from the deep. There is a long history of fishermen finding classical bronzes in the Mediterranean: the great statue of Zeus (or Poseidon) in the Athens Archaeological Museum was chanced upon in 1928 off Cape Artemision. Still entrancing and puzzling researchers and the public is theAntikythera mechanism, a remarkable orrery-cum-computer (somewhat resembling Philip Pullman ’s “alethiometer”) discovered in a wreck in 1902, now also in Athens. At the British Museum in 2016, crowds came to marvel at theSunken Cities exhibition, the fruit of investigations of the submerged ancient towns of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, which once stood at the mouth of the Nile. Damien Hirst exploited the romance of underwater archaeology in his 2017 exhibition in Venice,Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, which playfully purported to be the fruit of an actual excavation – according to taste, either a brilliant postmodern conceit or utterly preposterous.Now it is the turn of the Black Sea. TheMaritime Archaeology Project (MAP), the largest ever expedition of its type, recently completed three seasons of research off...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Archaeology Science Oceans Environment Bulgaria Europe World news Source Type: news