Posted on 01/18/2008 11:00:03 AM PST by blam
Underwater city could be revealed
Sonar, underwater camera and scanning equipment will be used
Britain's own underwater "Atlantis" could be revealed for the first time with hi-tech underwater cameras. Marine archaeologist Stuart Bacon and Professor David Sear, of the University of Southampton, will explore the lost city of Dunwich, off the Suffolk coast.
Dunwich gradually disappeared into the sea because of coastal erosion.
"It's about the application of new technology to investigate Britain's Atlantis, then to give this information to the public," Professor Sear said.
Mr Bacon, director of the Suffolk Underwater Studies, first located the debris of the lost city in the 1970s.
Technical advances
"I know the site like the back of my hand because I have dived on it about 1,000 times," said Mr Bacon who has been working on the medieval site since 1971.
"We have found three churches and one chapel."
There is diving evidence of debris from lost chapels and churches but high silt levels in the water means visibility is only a few centimetres.
Dunwich has been dubbed the UK's 'Atlantis'
Mr Sear, professor in physical geography at the University of Southampton, said: "Technical advances have massively improved our ability to create accurate acoustic images of the seafloor."
The expedition will use the latest sonar, underwater camera and scanning equipment to build up a picture of the ancient sunken city, that lies between 10ft (3m) and 50ft (15m) down.
Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1,500 years ago.
Its decline began in 1286 when a sea surge hit the East Anglian coast and it was eventually reduced through coastal erosion to the village it is today.
Mr Bacon and Professor Sear hope to begin exploring the seabed in June.
The expedition will cost £25,000 - £20,000 of which has already been raised through a donation from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
Maps and images of the lost city will be exhibited at the Dunwich museum.
A dive of the site will take place later in the year.
The riddle of Rogem Hiri remains unsolved. Those who built it some 5,000 years ago left the stage of history and took with them the secrets of this unusual site...
Gilgal Refaim (Rogem Hiri in arabic, though why an Israeli website would use an arab name escapes me,) is where - IIRC - Goliath came from.
They didn’t have shopping carts and Five O’Clock vodka 5,000 years ago...
;’)
Note: this topic is from 1/18/2008. Thanks blam.
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I guess he would have to know the site like the back of his hand.
Heritage House. undated. "Ordnance Survey Scale Linked Map of Dunwich and the Lost City (with Walberswick to Minsmere Walks)." Bradfield, Manningtree: Heritage House.
a Dunwich is an eaten Sanwich
Note: this topic is from . Thanks blam. Just an update.
Time Team - Season 19, Episode 3 - The Drowned Town (Dunwich, Suffolk)
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