this next one is almost certainly a dead link, but the full story may have been posted by someone somewhere sometime. :')Deepest WreckThe discovery of a 2,300-year-old shipwreck between the classical trading centers of Rhodes and Alexandria adds to the corpus of evidence that is challenging the long-held assumption that ancient sailors lacked the navigational skills to sail large distances across open water, and were instead restricted to following the coastline during their voyages. Four other possibly ancient wrecks lie nearby.
by Thomas Dettweiler,
Thomas Bethge,
and Brett Phaneuf
Archaeology
The point to be taken here is, most ancient wrecks may indeed be found near shore -- because that's where most of the danger lies (nasty rocks and shoals) -- but the best stuff may be found in deep waters, because they've likely remained untouched and unseen during all that time. :')Deep Sea SerendipityBecause Greek shipwrecks have only been found near the shore, historians assumed that Greek sailors cautiously navigated along coastlines, never venturing into open seas. A newly discovered wreck, hundreds of miles from shore, proves that the ancient Greeks were far more adventurous than they've been given credit for. Ocean explorer Thomas Dettweiler of Nauticos, a deep-ocean exploration company based in Hanover, Maryland, and his crew spotted the wreck in May 1999, while hunting for an Israeli submarine that had sunk in 1968 in the eastern Mediterranean. The 60-foot-long ship lay nestled in sediment 10,000 feet beneath the surface, several thousand feet deeper than any previous wreck. From the size and style of the amphorae, archaeologists from The Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University guess that they were made on the island of Kos, near Rhodes, 2,300 years ago. They probably held wine. The ship might have been traveling between Rhodes and Alexandria, two major ports. Five other possible wrecks have been identified nearby, says Dettweiler, who plans another expedition this summer to get a closer look at all six sites.
by Kathy A. Svitil
The late Willard Bascom was a mentor / idol of Robert Ballard. I saw this book at the library one day a few years ago, and as I read the prologue I realized who this guy was -- the prologue was quoted in a story about Ballard's finding of a Byzantine vessel in the anoxic (?) depths of the Black Sea. "It sits upright on the bottom, lightly covered by the sea dust of 2,500 years," he wrote. "The wave-smashed deckhouse and splintered bulwarks tell of the violence of its last struggle with the sea. A stub of a mast still remains."
Deep Water, Ancient Ships:
The Treasure Vault of the Mediterranean
by Willard Bascom
