Thx Scott........Here's one for you
Shipwreck Chemistry
Oxygen-Poor Water of Black
Sea Preserves Ancient
Wooden Ships
Carrot-shaped pots called amphorae
that once carried liquids like wine and
olive oil now lie on the bottom of the
Black Sea near a shipwreck. Scientists
says the water of the Black Sea is the
ideal environment for a sunken ship.
(National Geographic Society/Institute for
Exploration)
By Willow Lawson
Nov. 2 — Four Roman-era shipwrecks, including
one elaborately hand-carved wooden vessel,
have been discovered in the depths of the Black
Sea, members of a National Geographic
expedition announced today.
Researchers said the ships were preserved by a lack of
oxygen in the deep sea that lies just north of Turkey.
One ship is almost perfectly preserved, according to
Cheryl Ward, a nautical archaeologist at the Institute of
Nautical Archaeology, who took part in the expedition. “We
thought it couldn’t possibly be ancient,” she says of the ship,
which measures 45 feet in length, with a 35-foot-tall wooden
mast sticking up from floor of sea.
“No archaeologist has ever been able to study anything
like this,” she said at a news conference. “We’ve never been
able to look at the deck of an ancient ship.”
Ancient shipwrecks are usually in bad shape when they are
discovered, according to Robert Ballard, the expedition’s
leader, who also discovered the Titanic and the German
battleship the Bismarck. In many bodies of water, tiny
animals called wood bores quickly eat away any uncovered
portion of a wooden shipwreck, often leaving the cargo
stacked on the sea bottom after the ship has been
consumed.
Black Sea Chemistry
But 650 feet below the surface of the Black Sea, there is no
oxygen in the water for the wood bores to breathe, says
Ballard.
He compared the sea to a giant bathtub, with steep sides
and no drain. Because no river feeds into or out of the Black
Sea, the water is still and doesn’t circulate oxygen to the
bottom. The Black Sea, he says, is the perfect environment
for preserving shipwrecks. The researchers predict there are
perhaps hundreds still to be found.
Ward says the well-preserved ship comes from a time,
1,500 years ago, when ships were custom-made to order.
The ships were designed “skin-first,” she says, and the
inside of the ship was filled in later.
No cargo was visible near the wreck site of the ship with
the mast, so the vessel’s purpose remains unknown, say
researchers.
The Grave of Three Ships
The three other vessels were probably trading ships from
the Roman/Byzantine era, say researchers. The three other
shipwrecks lie close together on the bottom of the Black Sea,
at a depth of about 330 feet, between the oxygen-rich water
near the surface and the oxygen-deprived water on the
bottom.
All three ships contain huge amounts of terra cotta pots,
the kind that were used to transport wine, olive oil and
honey in ancient times. The long, carrot-like shape of some
of the pots (see top photo) was typical of pottery from Sinop,
Turkey, which borders the Black Sea to the south.
Earlier Black Sea Find
The shipwreck discovery follows the find of an underwater
archaeological site in the Black Sea. In September, members
of the expedition found part of a wooden building, 12 miles
off the coast of Turkey, with a few scattered wooden tools,
originally thought to be stone, that may date to more than
7,000 years ago.
Some scientists have speculated that the origins of
stories about a great flood, including the one in the Bible,
may have come from the flooding of the area after the end
of the last Ice Age, when water levels as glaciers melted.
Whether scientists find clues to such stories or not, Ballard
believes the waters of the Black Sea present the best hope
of learning more about ancient mariners and the societies
they lived in.
“The Black Sea probably has more preserved history, in
great detail, than any other place in the world,” he says.
But he worries that his announcement of such discoveries
will also put them at risk. He has called for same protection
of underwater archaeological sites as exists for those on
land. “The treasure hunters will be right on our heels,” he
warns. |
