University of Colorado archaeologist, colleagues hot on the trail of ancient Persian warships

University of Colorado at Boulder ^ | 4-Feb-2004 | Robert.Hohlfelder

[AdmSmith]

An international research team including a University of Colorado at Boulder professor has mounted a deep-water search off the northern coast of Greece in search of a fleet of Persian warships presumed lost in a massive ocean storm in 492 B.C.

The armada of warships is believed to have been sent by Persian King Darius to invade Greece, according to ancient historical accounts. The research team included more than a dozen Greek, Canadian, American and Finnish scholars.

The project is being conducted in the seas off the Mt. Athos peninsula. "This survey is the first one where scholars have searched for fleets of ancient ships using an historical source--in this case the writings of Herodotus," said CU-Boulder History Professor Hohlfelder, a senior maritime archaeologist on the project.

Herodotus, a Greek historian who lived from 485 to 430 B.C., is often called "The Father of History." His extensive writings include a report that in 492 B.C., nearly 300 ships and more than 20,000 men perished in a severe storm off Mt. Athos.

The event was said to cause Persian King Xerxes to cut a canal through the narrowest part of Mt. Athos prior to his 480 B.C. invasion of Greece to avoid the need to round the peninsula in the Aegean Sea, said Hohlfelder.

The team used sonar from the R/V Aegaeo ship of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, the manned Thetis submersible submarine and a remotely operated vehicle known as the Achilles for two weeks last October, said Hohlfelder. But ironically, it was an octopus that proved perhaps the most useful detector.

"We were a high-tech operation, but our most useful research tool turned out to be the octopuses that lived in these waters," said Hohlfelder. One octopus living in a ceramic pot 300 feet down had dragged broken pieces of pottery, stones and a bronze spear point with part of the wooden shaft still intact into the entrance of its home.

"Happily for marine archaeologists, these animals love to collect antiquities and pull them into their homes. "Very often the first clue that a shipwreck is nearby is a pile of artifacts collected by these wonderful creatures with an antiquarian's passion for old things."

The researchers hypothesize a vessel likely sunk there and landed on a deep shelf, spilling cargo. The site was chosen for the first survey by the team after two local fishermen raised two Greek bronze helmets from the area in 1999.

The bronze point tentatively has been identified as a "sauroter," a bronze spike at the end of a spear. It served as a counterweight and also allowed the shaft to be stuck in the ground when in was not in use. "It could be used as a weapon of last resort if the shaft with the iron point had broken or was lost during combat," he said.

The researchers were able to get a close-up view of the spear butt-spike with the remotely operated vehicle, or ROV. As soon as it was determined to be metal, the ROV moved into position and a mechanical arm equipped with a claw grasped onto it and the vehicle began a slow descent to the surface, Hohlfelder said.

The sauroter and the helmets found in the same area probably mark a warship in distress. "It may well have smashed into the rocky coast of Athos, spilling its contents onto a sandy shelf that sloped down to about 300 feet." Since the shelf ends abruptly and drops off into water up to 2,000 feet deep, Hohlfelder believes the rest of the ship's contents and perhaps the hull might rest there.

The team plans to add an autonomous underwater vehicle to its fleet -- built by a team member from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution -- as well as a tow-sled with cameras and recording instruments that will be designed and built at Woods Hole in spring 2004. The next expedition is slated for June 2004, said Hohlfelder.

"Doing archaeology in such deep water is a tremendous breakthrough for researchers," he said. "In a sense it is like the two Mars rovers now searching uncharted territory in space. Arguably, our survey holds the potential to be the most important underwater archaeology project ever attempted with the promise of providing unique information about the maritime life of antiquity."

###

[AdmSmith]

CU-Boulder's Robert Hohlfelder enters the manned Thetis submersible submarine off the northern coast of Greece last October in search of sunken Persian warships. Photos courtesy Robert Hohlfelder, University of Colorado at Boulder

Two amphoras, tall jars with narrow necks and handles used to transport food and drink by the early Greeks and Romans and thought to have come from a shipwreck, were brought to the surface by SCUBA divers near Mt. Athos. Photos courtesy Robert Hohlfelder, University of Colorado at Boulder

[AdmSmith]

Darius Ping

[aynrandfreak]

Those ancient fighters could probably still take out modern Iranian forces.

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
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[curmudgeonII]

Herodotus, a Greek historian who lived from 485 to 430 B.C., is often called "The Father of History."

He is also called "The Father of Liars".

[EggsAckley]

That underwater gizmo looks vaguely familiar:

[AdmSmith]

In case you are not on Farmfriends GGG-list

[nuconvert]

"We were a high-tech operation, but our most useful research tool turned out to be the octopuses that lived in these waters," said Hohlfelder. One octopus living in a ceramic pot 300 feet down had dragged broken pieces of pottery, stones and a bronze spear point with part of the wooden shaft still intact into the entrance of its home."

Giving credit where credit is due...........

[nuconvert]

LOL. I just saw #6. Good Luck...........LOL!

[nuconvert]

Ancient Persian Warship Pong

[nuconvert]

Ancient Persian Warship Pong

[ZULU]

NICE article.

Thanks.

[blam]

"In case you are not on Farmfriends GGG-list"

Thanks for the ping. There is a good one hour documentary on one of the educational/documentary channels that covers this whole subject. It's a very good documentary.

[gcruse]

Herodotus was indeed popular during the Hellenistic period, but he was popular because every two-bit intellectual went abroad with the intent of writing a pamphlet disproving some facet of the History.<92> The only one of these pamphlets that has survived with the text intact is Plutarch's On the Malignity of Herodotus. Plutarch's attacks, however, ring of the same right wing patriotism that can be seen in most xenophobic nation-states.<93> Herodotus praised things that went against the national character of the empire, and to make matters worse, "he wrote so well that people read him."<94>

[carpio]

BTTT

[DarthMaulrulesok]

Any chance they could survey/salvage something from the Battle of Salamis? Now THAT would be something!

[blackie]

Good stuff ~ Bump!

[ruoflaw]

good article!

[SunkenCiv]

Another oldie. Last of the night. Probably. ;')

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[Lee'sGhost]

Cool. I took a Hohlfelder class when I went to CU. One of the few competent profs I had there.