Posted on 01/18/2010 11:59:53 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Buried beneath shells, rocks and sand, for 2,600 years, ...a treasure of incalculable value has lain just off La Manga...The find appears to be the cargo of a commercial ship carrying ivory from African elephants, amber and lots of ceramic objects. The find has been kept secret for the past three years by the team of divers led by the Spaniard Juan Pinedo Reyes and the American Mark Edward Polzer. The recovery project is being financed by National Geographic, who have reached an agreement with the Spanish Minister of Culture, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the University A&M of Texas. The recovery is taking place around Grosa Island and El Farallon Island, just off La Manga. Over the last three years 1,400 objects have been collected. Even some of the wood from the bottom of the ship has survived since the 7th Century before Christ (620 BC), and has been recovered. It is believed the vessel measured approximately 15 metres long. The find has been described as one of the most important of all archaeological discoveries. The Ivory tusks measure between 70 and 150 centimetres, with Phoenician writing inscribed. They have come from a race of elephants which are now believed to be extinct. There are also copper ingots and stones containing silver and lead. Ceramic pots which were used for transporting fish and oil have been found too, as well as plates, bowls, combs, ivory knife handles, bronze needles and chandeliers. It is believed the ship crashed into rocks off the island, which are just a metre and a half below the surface. The ship would have set sail from Cadiz, and was probably heading towards Guardamar to a factory there, or to deliver items to a prince living in the area.
(Excerpt) Read more at theleader.info ...
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Why is this one of the most important archelogical discoveries?
:’) Dunno who said it was, but anyway, known Phoenician shipwrecks are ridiculously rare, despite the fact that the estimates for the number of Phoenician ships over the period of some few centuries of their heyday is fairly large. They were A) very good at plying the seas, and B) probably salvaged when they went down in fairly shallow water.
Those two things are true of ancient wrecks in general.
Robert Ballard, while looking for some modern submarine about ten years ago, found a couple of Phoenician wrecks in very deep waters off Israel. Like sailors today, ancient captains took the shortest routes, which could mean most favorable winds (sail west to east during part of the year, east to west another part of the year), but more generally meant as straight as possible to the destination. Coast-hugging was no more common then than it is now.
I would love to be part of this expedition. What a wonderful opportunity for imagination...
It says it in the article: "The find has been described as one of the most important of all archaeological discoveries."
I was curious too.
I have always laughed at archeologists who claimed that trade ships hugged coasts. They obviously neither own boats or know anyone who does.
So the Aggies are involved? Cool.
Yeah, I know, but I didn’t want to give the impression that my answer was anything but my own speculation.
/bingo
For that matter, it’s apparent they’ve never so much as taken a swim in the ocean, or one of the Great Lakes. :’)
:’) I’d have to look into the depths of the History folders here, but it could be that Ballard has some kind of unofficial role at that school. Probably I’m way off though.
Ditto! The abyssal plains of the Med, and the areas west of Portugal, Spain, France, and the British Isles (at the very least) probably have a good number of ancient wrecks still loaded for trade. I’d LOVE to take part in any of these deep-sea discoveries, particularly in search of the really big Roman tubs; the Romans transported obelisks from Egypt, quite a number of them in fact, as well as one-piece stone columns quarried in Mons Claudianus (eastern desert of Egypt) weighing about 200 tons each, and obviously moved them by sea. Caligula’s pleasure barge was discovered in pre-WWII Italy, on some former inland lake, and it displaced over 200 tons (and then got destroyed during the war, unfortunately). It would take a vessel probably displacing 300 to 400 tons to safely transport some of those cargoes. My guess is, there is one or more of those setting down there, waiting to be found. It’ll be fantastic if it happens.
also, here’s this, Ballard’s find of 8th century BC ships off Ashkelon:
Iron Age Shipwrecks in Deep Water off Ashkelon, Israel
Robert D. Ballard and Lawrence E. Stager
Daniel Master, Dana Yoerger, David Mindell, Louis L. Whitcomb, Hanumant Singh, and Dennis Piechota
http://web.mit.edu/deeparch/www/publications/papers/BallardEtAl2002.pdf
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Poke him in the eyes!
Show him Helen Thomas’ baby pictures?
;’) That partly explains the traditional archetype of one-eyed pirates.
Another treasure trove would be the bottom of the Black Sea, due to the sterile and lifeless nature of the lower layers of the water. Since even the bacteria which cause decay are missing there, wrecks have been found almost perfectly preserved.
Thanks thsr. Robert Ballard went looking for any traces of human habitation and wound up finding a wreck instead. Also, there’s this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2141182/posts
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