Three-year European project aims to safeguard shipwrecks

Nature, 23 January 2002, by JOHN WHITFIELD

Archaeologists across Europe are teaming up to preserve and manage shipwrecks and to share their secrets with the public.

The three-year project was launched with 1.2-million euro of European Union funding late last year. By 2004, participants plan to have a standard procedure for assessing wrecks and deciding whether they are at risk.

They hope to find out more about the pros and cons of raising ships, and to develop ways in which the public can pay virtual visits to wreck sites.

Research will focus on four wrecks in northern European waters. Two are in the Baltic Sea, one is in the North Sea off the Dutch coast, and the fourth lies in a Swedish lake. The ships range from a thirteenth-century sailing vessel to a paddle steamer that sank in 1856.

Instruments at the wrecks will monitor currents, salinity and other conditions. At the moment, "we know very little about the processes underwater", says marine archaeologist Carl Olof Cederlund of Soderton University College in Stockholm.

The scientists hope to work out why one ship lasts while another rots - the action of waves and bacteria are both known to be important. The data gathered will help to predict the fates of wrecks, and so help archaeologists decide how to preserve them. Nets draped over the wreck can trap a protective layer of silt, and sandbags can buffer wave damage.

The project will also explore ways to minimize the increasing human pressure on sites, as more people journey into the sea for leisure or in search of minerals and fossil fuel.

"We should try to develop virtual underwater museums," says Sallamaria Tikkanen of the Maritime Museum of Finland in Helsinki. These would allow Internet users to tour wreck sites.

By bringing the wrecks into sight, archaeologists hope to bring them into people's minds. "When the general public knows about the wrecks they feel they're part of our common heritage," says Tikkanen.

The EU project was initiated by Finnish researchers working on the wreck of the Vrouw Maria. This merchant vessel sank in 1771 en route from Amsterdam to St Petersburg, carrying a cargo of luxury items and artworks to Russian Empress Catherine the Great. It was rediscovered in 1999, under 41 metres of water off the Finnish coast.

By comparing the Vrouw Maria with other wrecks, the Finns hope to learn what might happen to it in the future, and can then decide whether they should raise it.

"We are willing to lift it if we have the money, but it would cost hundreds of millions of euros," says Tikkanen. And raising wrecks is "a bit old-fashioned", she adds.

Plants give boats a biological birth certificate.

Nature, 26 January 2004, by Michael Hopkin

How do you work out where an ancient ship was originally built? Try looking at the pollen caught in the joints of the wreck, suggests a French ecologist.

Serge Muller, of the University of Montpellier II in France, says the range of pollen found on a shipwreck gives a snapshot of the plant species local to the boat's birthplace. The sticky resin used to seal a boat's hull can catch and trap pollen, giving the boat a biological 'birth certificate'.

"I see tremendous potential for this method," says Robert Hohlfelder, an archaeologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "We're always searching for new ways to investigate shipwrecks. At the moment it's almost impossible to do."

Muller has used the method to trace the origins of a shipwreck off the south coast of France. The Baie-de-l'Amitié, a 2,000-year-old wreck that now lies near the port of Cap d'Agde, was constructed east of Italy, he concludes1.

If that is true, it might force historians to revise some of their ideas about ancient transport. Archaeologists had thought that small boats such as the Baie-de-l'Amitié were only used to carry freight over small distances, says Muller. But his analysis indicates that it travelled clear across the Mediterranean.

Hohlfelder says he wouldn't be surprised if the ships had travelled the distance to carry grapes or wine between ports. "Before the wine industry developed in France, a lot of wine was imported from Italy," he says.

Detective tool

Pollen is a good detective's tool, says pollen expert Madeline Harley of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, UK. The grains can be preserved for millions of years, and have highly characteristic features. "It's like a thumbprint for a species," she says.

Archaeologists can gain some clues to a ship's background by dating its timber. But it is hard to extract clues about the location of the shipyard from these beams, as the wood was often imported from distant sources.

Local pollen, however, would become incorporated into the ship as it is being built, says Muller. The Baie-de-l'Amitié contains both wood and pollen from Platanus, a tree that is restricted to the eastern Mediterranean. The presence of pollen from weeds - such as Haplophyllum, most species of which are found east of Italy - also supports Muller's theory of the boat's origins.

Hohlfelder hopes to use Muller's method to pinpoint where the Persians constructed the fleet with which they invaded Greece in the fifth century BC. More than 1,000 of these ships are thought to lie 100 metres beneath the Aegean Sea. "But we just don't know where the shipyards were," Hohlfelder says.


References

Muller, S. D. Palynological study of antique shipwrecks from the western Mediterranean Sea, France. Journal of Archaeological Science, 31, 343 - 349, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2003.09.005 (2004).

Bid to find lost Persian armada

By Paul Rincon
BBC News Online science staff

Archaeologists have embarked on an epic search for an ancient fleet of Persian ships that was destroyed in a violent storm off Greece in 492 BC. The team will search for sunken remains of the armada - sent by Persian king Darius to invade Greece - which was annihilated before reaching its target.

Waters off Mount Athos in northern Greece, the site of the disaster, have yielded two helmets and a spear-butt. Experts will return to the site in June to look for more remains of the fleet.

"This is an extraordinarily target-rich area for ancient shipwrecks," Dr Robert Hohlfelder, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, US, told BBC News Online.

"Usually, when shipwrecks are found, the archaeologists are asked to create the history around them. We have the history, now we've got to find the shipwrecks."

Historical cue

An account of the 492 BC disaster is related in The Histories, by the 5th Century BC Greek writer Herodotus. He says the ships were smashed against Mount Athos. Last year, the team discovered a shipwreck containing amphoras, pottery containers used for transporting foodstuffs. How, if at all, this wreck relates to the disaster is not known.

The archaeologists also found a bronze spear-butt, called a sauroter, at a site where, in 1999, local fisherman raised two Greek classical helmets from the seafloor. The sauroter was found in the possession of an octopus, which had dragged the spear-butt inside a jar in which it had made its sea-floor home.

The survey could help resolve arguments about how triremes - ancient galley warships used by the Persians and Greeks - were constructed.

Recycled boats

In trireme battles, victory hinged on slamming other ships with a heavy bronze ram on the front of the ship. Not a single trireme wreck has ever been found and archaeologists on the survey are divided over the likelihood of finding one on this expedition.

"We will not find a trireme. They contained very little ballast so they floated. Although the rams may have sunk," team member Michael Wedde told BBC News Online.

Classical texts refer to triremes being rescued, towed to dry land and repaired to be reused.

"There's some question over whether they sank," said Dr Shelley Wachsmann of Texas A&M University in College Station, US. "Most ships we find have cargoes because those bring them to the bottom."

But Dr Hohlfelder said there was a possibility a trireme could have sunk to the sea bed: "Underwater archaeologists have wish lists. A trireme is certainly one of the top ones on most people's lists. And I think this is one of the best places to look for them." It is also possible that supply ships - which supported the warships - were carried to the bottom, weighed down by their cargoes.

The project is a collaboration between the Canadian Institute of Archaeology and the Greek Archaeological Service. Katerina Dellaporta, of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities in Greece, and Dr Wachsmann are leading the research. Around 20,000 men were lost in the disaster, which shook Persia at a time when it had its sights on assimilating mainland Greece within its empire.

Haiti

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 16, 2004.

Haiti has just signed an agreement with Sub Sea Research L.L.C. a privately held Maine based company, in a promising joint venture arrangement that will span many years to promote awareness of Haiti’s National Maritime Heritage and improve the country’s maritime cultural recognition worldwide.

“After several years of planning and extensive negotiations between Haitian officials and principals of Sub Sea Research, an exciting and extensive cooperative agreement has been reached between Haiti and Sub Sea Research to rescue International Maritime Heritage Sites located along Haiti's coast. This will be a long term multi-faceted project meant to bring interest and positive permanent advances to our knowledge of this period in Haiti’s history and how that relates to our understanding of an important era of our exploration and trade in the western hemisphere,” Greg Brooks of Sub Sea Research reported today in a telephone conference with some of his core team members.

“Projects which intend to expand the knowledge of Haiti's Maritime History in the New World and promote long term plans for establishing historic dive sites in an unexplored and impoverished country hungry for revenue alternatives is warmly anticipated by Haitians from all walks of life and will only serve to improve opportunities for everyone,” Greg Brooks, Co- founder and Director of Sub Sea, added. “I realize that many people today focus on the problems and difficulties but in the long run Haiti is long overdue recognition as a hub for some of the most intriguing and least understood portions of our marine cultural heritage and history. We plan to change that for the better.”

Although he realizes this is a daunting area of the Caribbean fraught with political uncertainty and long endured poverty, he feels confidently optimistic about the project’s long term success.

“I visited Haiti as a tourist many years ago, and discovered for myself that there is much more to the country and its people than is often assumed.” Greg adds, “Everyone involved in this business and in this project understands that these efforts won’t be realized overnight. It will take time just to survey the
areas we are starting with, there is so much out there - but we are committed to seeing this through.”

He says the waters around Haiti have been “ignored and overlooked for too long, and there is too much history lying on or under the seabed, rotting away so, it’s wrong for us to ignore it any longer. We have the technology and the resources to be productive partners in this with the Haitian people.” It will be a beneficial and a very rewarding venture that we intend to pursue for a very long time.” Greg Brooks and his partners are committed to seeing these efforts produce positive and beneficial growth and opportunity for the Haitian people and visualize the potential for many offspring ventures from this.

Three large permit areas along Haiti's north, west and southern coastlines will require long term involvement by Sub Sea and associates to complete surveys and site assessments on what appears to be one of the last unexplored shallow water coastlines in the Caribbean. Hundreds if not thousands of ships were attracted to the multitude of naturally protected deep bays and harbors surrounding Haiti - which lies in the middle of one of the most popular Dutch West Indies trade routes for the ships of discovery and Spanish Main. It was also one of the strongholds of buccaneers, privateers and freebooters throughout this period - and therefore illustrates the incredible wealth of sea-faring history lying in repose off Haiti's shores.

Greg also hopes to strike a chord with people who are looking to add value to their lives and instill adventure in their travels by volunteering their time and talents and joining Sub Sea’s new “Diving Into History” program. This is currently being developed to allow students, travelers and divers the opportunity to experience a once in a lifetime adventure, while aiding our efforts to identify, locate and recover Haiti’s incredibly rich and undetected maritime heritage and shipwreck history.

For more information please contact :

Michele Wells, Public Outreach and Relations, Sub Sea Research L.L.C.
Email: seaone@swfla.rr.com or info@subseareaserach.com
Telephone: 941-876-0101 Cellular 941-276-2095
Maine Office: 207-879-1758

O naufrágio do galeão São Martinho (1635)

Recibo passado ao capitão inglês Thomas William pelo salvamento de canhões e munições do local de naufrágio (golfo da Biscaia) do galeão São Martinho

Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Reino, Caixa 9, doc. 5,


Thomas Guilherme ingles capitão do nauio Santa Marta e São Françisco, Emtregou neste almazem, a Rodrigo da Costa Varela almoxarife delle, quatorze peças de artelharia de 14 pecas de bronze bronze que se saluarão, do galeão, Santo Martinho, de que era 18 pecas de ferro capitão; Dom Simão Mazcarenhas, que no anno de 635. fez naufragio, na costa da Biscaya; E dezoito peças de ferro coado, e mil e quatreçentas e trinta e quatro balas, e mil e quinhentos e setenta e quatro mosquetes, e quinhentos e vinte tres arcabuzes, todas as dittas armas de Biscaya, de todo aparelhadas, que tudo esta Lancado fl. 317 do Livro da emmenta em titulo das couzas, que manda, da ditta prouinçia de Biscaya, o Comiçairo Manoel da fonsequa, que comprou com o dinheiro de Sua Magestade as dittas dezoito peças de ferro pelouros e armas e para auer, o ditto Thomas Guilheme (sic) pagamento de seu frete, em que se lhe descontara o valor de hum mosquete que lhe faltou; dos que lhe forão emtregues, se lhe passou esta segunda çertidão, por dizer, que se lhe perdeo a primeira que lhe passey Lixboa 9 de feuereiro de 638

Pedro Correa

[À margem]

1434 - pellouros
1574 - mosquetes
523 - arcabuzes

Rescue for medieval salt ship

BBC News

Archaeologists are preparing to rescue a medieval salt ship that has been buried beneath mud in Cheshire for nearly 700 years. The 26ft-long ship was carved out of a single oak tree and experts say it is of national importance.

The vessel, which was discovered during work on a building site, was originally used to store brine as part of a medieval salt works in the centre of Nantwich. The brine would have then been boiled to extract the salt, which was a highly prized commodity at the time.

Examination of the tree rings will give a true age of the ship but experts are confident about their initial estimate that it dates back to the 1300s.

Complicated process

Just two years ago archaeologists working nearby on a similar housing plot found the site of a 2000-year-old Roman salt works. The process of preserving medieval timbers is complicated, say experts. The most famous find - the Mary Rose - is sprayed with water to stop the wood from falling apart. After 700 years under mud, exposure to oxygen is the biggest threat to the salt ship.

The rescue operation is costing more than £100,000. The ship needs to be kept wet until it can be lifted out over the next few days. It will then be freeze dried before eventually going on display in a local museum.

Ancient Port Found Below Naples

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Jan. 15, 2004 — Italian archaeologists have discovered the ancient port of Neapolis during excavation work for a new subway in Naples, they announced at a news conference this week.

Extending into the heart of present-day Naples, the second-century port was found 13 meters (43 feet) beneath one of the city's main squares, not far from the 13th-century Maschio Angioino fortress.

Evidence for the ancient Mediterranean port included a 10-meter (33-foot) ship, wooden pieces belonging to piers, and various items.

"We have gathered hundreds of them, all very well preserved. They had probably fallen off the ships while being unloaded. These objects will help us to shed light on the ancient city's everyday life, not to mention the possibility of studying the circulation of goods. We have found ceramics from various areas in the Mediterranean," Daniela Giampaola, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation, told Discovery News.

Among the items are coins, glass bottles still uncorked with the organic material perfectly preserved, intact amphorae and soles of seafarers' shoes, probably tossed away when they were no longer good.

Also found by the ship were seafarer's tools, such as needles to darn the nets, ropes, nails, hooks, stone anchors, and ancient lamps to attract fish at night.

Sand gradually covered Neapolis' port until it disappeared in the fourth century. Trapped in mud, the ship seems to be in excellent condition, thanks to the silt that, producing an airless environment, prevented decomposition.

"Most probably, the ship sank due to storms and floods. It will take at least six months to take it out of the mud, " Giampaola said.

Hoping to come across other important discoveries, in the next months Giampaola's team will follow the subway work and excavate deeper.

Indeed, the subway project has revealed other important findings elsewhere in the city, such as the remains of a building also dating to the Roman Empire, and a 12th-century fountain.

"We know that Naples was an important harbor, but till now have not been able to recover any physical evidence. The discovery of a sunken ship with its cargo is exciting, and it is to be hoped that more evidence of the port will emerge from future work," Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, director of the British School at Rome, an authority on ancient Roman history, told Discovery News.

La conservación del material arqueológico subacuático

Un número monográfico de la revista Monte Buciero analiza los problemas de la restauración de este tipo de restos El trabajo ha sido coordinado por Carmelo Fernández y Rafael Palacio.

El Ayuntamiento de Santoña, a través de la Comisión de Cultura y de la Casa de Cultura, ha editado recientemente el número 9 de la revista Monte Buciero, que en este caso ha sido dedicado de forma monográfica a la conservación del material arqueológico subacuático.

La ausencia de trabajos de síntesis de este tipo decidieron a los coordinadores de la obra, Carmelo Fernández Ibáñez, restaurador del Museo de Palencia (antes de Orense) e investigador muy vinculado a Cantabria a través de diferentes proyectos y publicaciones, y a Rafael Palacio, historiador y director de la Casa de Cultura de Santoña a recabar una serie de colaboraciones de diferentes investigadores con el objetivo de ofrecer al lector un «estado de la cuestión» sobre una problemática que genera muchos interrogantes todavía entre arqueólogos, conservadores de museos y restauradores.

Las alteraciones que comienzan a experimentar los materiales procedentes de cualquier pecio o depósito arqueológico una vez que han sido sacados del agua son tan severas que cualquier previsión o medida preventiva puede resultar insuficiente. Comentan los coordinadores de la obra en la introducción, «las diferentes materias que conforma los objetos que hallamos bajo el agua se comportan en general de manera diferente a como lo hacen en tierra. Las condiciones son más extremas y hostiles y en consecuencia todo queda magnificado, desde los diferentes grados de conservación hasta las alteraciones y sus consecuencias».

Contenidos

La obra, que cuenta con 27 colaboraciones de los principales expertos nacionales en la materia, se organiza en cuatro grandes bloques y cuenta con la presentación por parte del profesor Piero Gianfrotta, de la Universidad de Tuscia.

En la primera parte se abordan aspectos generales y metodológicos, al tiempo que se ofrece una visión comentada por la bibliografía existente sobre conservación y restauración de materiales arqueológicos subacuáticos.

Posteriormente se dedica un capítulo a los tres centros de investigación que funcionan en España: el Nacional de Cartagena, el de Andalucía y el de Cataluña. Sus respectivos responsables ofrecen una visión de la actividad que desarrollan en materia de conservación de materiales arqueológicos subacuáticos.

El tercer bloque del libro se dedica a aspectos más concretos y técnicos, analizándose los problemas específicos que presentan diferentes tipos de materiales como el hueso, el hierro o el vidrio.

Finalmente, el último bloque de la obra ofrece ejemplos sobre soluciones contrastadas tomadas en algunos casos de puertos, pecios o poblados localizados y excavados pese a estar debajo del agua. Así, se exponen experiencias de diferentes yacimientos catalanes, andaluces y vascos, regiones donde más de han desarrollado este tipo de investigaciones.

En definitiva, un libro muy completo que contibuirá a la preservación de este patrimonio.

SUMARIO

Coordinación

Aspectos generales

Los centros de investigación

Alteración, recuperación y técnicas de conservación

Problemas y soluciones: Carmelo Fernández Ibáñez y Rafael Palacio Ramos.

Presentación: Piero Gianfrotta

Patrimonio Cultural Sumergido: investigar y conservar para el futuro. Manuel Martín-Bueno.

Líneas de actuación para una eficaz protección del Patrimonio Arqueológico Subacuático. Luis Lafuente Batanero.

La conservación del material arqueológico subacuático. El arqueólogo y el restaurador ante las primeras intervenciones. Carmen Pérez de Andrés.

El entorno marino de los restos arqueológicos. Gerardo García-Castrillo Riesgo, Paloma Lanuza Alonso y Pablo López García.

Metodología de la arqueología subacuática. Carlos León Amores.

Bibliografía española comentada sobre conservación y restauración de materiales arqueológicos de procedencia subacuática. Carmelo Fernández Ibáñez.

Panorama del Museo Nacional de Arqueología Marítima y Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Subacuáticas. Iván Negueruela.

El Centro de Arqueología Subacuática de la Comunidad Autónoma andaluza y la conservación del material arqueológico. Carmen García Ribero y Luis Carlos Zambrano.

El Centre d'Arqueología Subaquàtica de Catalunya. Xavier Nieto.

La conservación de la madera en arqueología subacuática. Museo y Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Submarinas. Juan Luis Sierra Méndez.

La degradación del hueso. Ana Bouzas Abad y Ana Laborde.

La alteración del hierro por sales. Ayer y hoy. Problemas y soluciones. Carmelo Fernández Ibáñez.

Las sales y su incidencia en la conservación de la cerámica arqueológica. Carmelo Fernández Ibáñez.

Deterioro de vidrios en medio submarino. Noemí Carmona, Manuel García, Cristina Gil, María Angeles Villegas.

Moldeados y reproducciones. Problemática bajo el agua. Luis Carlos Zambrano.

Instalación de un laboratorio de restauración de materiales de procedencia subacuática. C. Gómez-Gil.

Los pecios de Cala Culip (Girona) y Castelldefels (Barcelona). Anna Jover.

Problemática y situación actual de la arqueología subacuática en la bahía de Cádiz. Josefa Martí y Nuria E. Rodríguez.

El poblado neolítico de La Draga. Julia Chinchilla.

Planificación de las excavaciones arqueológicas en sedimentos inundados. María Mercedes Urteaga y M.ª Antonia Gereñu.

Método de extracción de los materiales hallados en el puerto de Irún. Giorgio Studer.

Deterioro postexcavación e intervención de conservación en piezas de los pecios. Joaquín Barrio Martín.

Se houvesse um português, licenciado em Engenharia Civil, pós-graduado em Restauro de Edifícios Classificados, com um MBA pela Católica e um doutoramente em Arqueologia Náutica, se esse português fosse professor numa Universidade americana, morasse no Texas com a mulher holandesa, se fosse um caso patológico de devoção a certos e determinados fósseis e a matérias tão obscuras e esotéricas como a medição dos codos, se esse português fosse perigosamente anarquista e simultaneamente o tipo mais inteligente, culto e alucinado que eu conheço, então esse português teria este blog.

Senhoras e senhores, Luís Filipe Castro.

Sunken ships' ancient treasures now on display at Vietnam museum

The items, some dating as far back as the year 1402, were recovered from five shipwrecks. The ancient
treasures comprising artefacts, statues and pots reveal valuable insights into Vietnam's history.

The artefacts were retrieved from 5 sunken vessels in the Southern Vietnam sea. And they have already helped historians to understand how Vietnam was once actively engaged in trade with the rest of the world. And now, the public has the chance to appreciate the country's rich history through an exhibition at the Vietnam History Museum.

"Vietnam still has a lot more treasures underwater. It is an urgent task now to preserve them and find proper measures to raise these artefacts. We already have an underwater archeological centre but it is still not working at full capacity," said curator Pham Quoc Quan.

The museum has dedicated five rooms to these artefacts, one for each sunken vessel. The biggest salvage was recovered from Chan Island in Quang Nam Province. Items such asporcelain plates and vases were submerged 72 metres under water. But after three years and US$6 million, local and foreign divers managed to bring up to land 240,000 artefacts in the area alone.

The items also include a restored shipping map, vases made of ceramic and even a well-preserved skull, believed to be that of an 18-year-old Thai girl. Historians say most of the items collected from this wreck were ceramics originating from the Northern Hai Duong province. The ship also had a cargo of Chinese
porcelain, and archaelogists believe this implies that the vessel had been on its way to Vietnam. - CNA