Marine Archæology - New Underwater Discoveries
January - June 2010

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"Archaeologists attack BP’s drilling plans:
Damage feared to underwater sites off the coast of Libya"

September 2010 Edition, The Art Newspaper, USA:
"From Greek and Roman shipwrecks to 20th-century warships; from ancient streets with intact buildings and mosaics to amphorae and ingots, the Mediterranean is a subaqueous treasure trove.

So BP’s plans to drill exploratory oil wells off Libya has raised serious concerns among archaeologists, historians and heritage preservation organisations.

'An oil spill off the coast of Libya would be a complete disaster', said Claude Sintes, the director of the subaquatic team of the French archaeological mission to Libya and director of the Museum of Ancient Arles, France.

According to Sintes, there are two archaeologically rich areas along the Libyan coast Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. Within Cyrenaica lies Apollonia, an ancient harbour submerged five metres under the water.

'It’s a complete town under the sea with streets, walls and houses. Slow tectonic movement caused it to sink', said Sintes." [Full Story]

"2,000-Year-Old wrecked ship located near Hambanthota harbour in Southern Sri Lanka"

August 20, 2010, Colombo Page, Sri Lanka:
"Sri Lanka National Archaeological Department announces that an ancient ship believed to have sunk more than 2,000 years was located close to the historical Godavaya Port, close to recently opened Hambanthota harbour.

Archaeologist Sanath Karunarathne says it is believed that the newly found ship is older than 2,000 years.

Historical items including a stone bench with an ancient inscription have also been discovered among the wreckage." [Full Story]

"Divers surface with possibly history-changing artifacts"

August 20, 2010, WTSP 10 Connect, USA:
"In a small clearing amid the trees, divers from the University of Miami and the Florida Aquarium prepare for what could be a history-changing mission. They're about to plunge into Little Salt Spring.

And the water here is unique; it's an underwater archaeologist's dream.

a UM diver holdong one of the artifacts discovered during the
Little Salt Spring underwater archaeological expedition

Copyright © 2010
University of Miami / WTSP 10 Connect

Because the water contains no dissolved oxygen, it preserves materials like no other pre-historic site.

With some careful handling, divers delivered the possible artifacts to the surface in plastic containers." [Full Story]

"Archaeologists dive deep for revealing Florida artifacts"

August 19, 2010, Tampa Bay Online, USA:
"In the pitch-black depths of an isolated North Port spring sits a silt-covered ledge that is revealing secrets about a prehistoric nomadic people, secrets held in murky silence for 100 centuries.

Now, with diving gear and artifact-collecting bags, archaeologists with the University of Miami and The Florida Aquarium are sweeping away the muck and uncovering that distant past.

This stuff is from 10,000 years ago, when wandering tribes traversed Florida. Their travels included stopovers at what is now known as Little Salt Spring, 90 minutes south of Tampa.

Artifacts are delicately uncovered from a ledge 90 feet below the surface, archaeologists say, offering up glimpses of what life was like for who is believed to have been Florida's first residents." [Full Story]

"Ancient Shipwrecks Found Off Central Italy's Coast"

August 13, 2010, VOA News, Czech Republic:
"A team of marine archeologists using sonar scanners has discovered new underwater treasures in the Italian seas.

Trading vessels dating from the first century BC to the 5th through 7th centuries AD were found in the waters of the Pontine Islands. Their cargoes were found to be intact.

Newly discovered underwater treasures
in the Italian seas near the Pontine Islands

Copyright © 2010 Italian Ministry of Culture / VOA News

Italian culture authorities and the Aurora Trust, a U.S. foundation which promotes underwater exploration in the Mediterranean, discovered four shipwrecks resting on the seabed.

The discovery was made in a beautiful stretch of sea off the tiny rock of Zannone, part of the Pontine Islands in central Italy." [Full Story]

"Atlantis of the East? No, it is a theme park"

August 04, 2010, The Daily Telegraph, UK:
"When the remains of an ancient underwater city were photographed off the coast of Bali, the Indonesian government hailed it as a potentially 'phenomenal' discovery.

The undersea archaeological department of the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced an investigation as rumours quickly circulated of 10 more such temples in the strait between Java and Bali. Excited local media speculated that an Atlantis of the East had been found.

Mystical statues of the gods, their faces covered in gorgonian fans
stood rooted to the ocean floor behind an ornate temple
gateway that is 100 feet below sea level

Copyright © 2010 Paul Turley / The Daily Telegraph

Unfortunately, hopes of a groundbreaking discovery have been sunk. The city turns out to be an underwater theme park built by a British diver to entertain his customers

Paul Turley, 43, 'sank' the city in 2005 as an underwater attraction for visitors to his dive school in Pemuteran, north west Bali. He and an Australian colleague, Chris Brown, also aimed to highlight the importance of marine conservation." [Full Story]

"150-Year-Old Lost Ship Found in Arctic"

July 29, 2010, Discovery Channel News, USA:
"Canadian archeologists have found a ship abandoned more than 150 years ago in the quest for the fabled Northwest Passage and which was lost in the search for the doomed expedition of Sir John Franklin, the head of the team said Wednesday.

Marc-Andre Bernier, Parks Canada's head of underwater archaeology, said the HMS Investigator, abandoned in the ice in 1853, was found in shallow water in Mercy Bay along the northern coast of Banks Island in Canada's western Arctic.

'The ship is standing upright in very good condition. It's standing in about 11 meters (36 feet) of water',he said. 'This is definitely of the utmost importance. This is the ship that sailed the last leg of the Northwest Passage'." [Full Story]

"Canadians discover long-lost ship ‘fundamental’
to Arctic sovereignty"

July 28, 2010, National Post, Canada:
"The ship whose crew discovered Canada’s Northwest Passage has been found 155 years after it was abandoned and disappeared in this isolated Arctic bay, a historic find and one that may help bolster Canadian claims to Arctic sovereignty.

The wreck of HMS Investigator was detected in shallow water within days of Parks Canada archeologists launching an ambitious search for the 422-ton ship from a chilly tent encampment on the Beaufort Sea shoreline.

The wreckage of HMS Investigator was detected within days of Parks Canada launching its ambitious search for the 36-metre ship in Mercy Bay, N.W.T.

Copyright © 2010 Lieut. S. Gurney Cresswell / Toronto Reference Library

'It’s sitting upright in silt; the three masts have been removed, probably by ice', said Ifan Thomas, Parks Canada’s superintendent of the western Arctic Field Unit. 'It’s a largely intact ship in very cold water, so deterioration didn’t happen very quickly.'

Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who arrived at the camp on Tuesday, said that finding a relic linked to the discovery of the Northwest Passage represents a reasserted Canadian claim to Arctic sovereignty." [Full Story]

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from our Wish List

"Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia"
by
Stephen Oppenheimer

Get This Book From:
Amazon.com
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Abe Books

"A book that completetly changes the established and conventional view of prehistory by relocating the Lost Eden - the world's 1st civilization - to SouthEast Asia. At the end of the Ice Age, SouthEast Asia formed a continent twice the size of India, which included Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia and Borneo.

The South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand and the Java sea, which were all dry, formed the connecting parts of the continent. Geologically, this half sunken continent is the Shunda shelf or Sundaland.

He produces evidence from ethnography, archaeology, oceanography, from creation stories, myths and sagas and from linguistics and DNA analysis, to argue that this founder civilization was destroyed by a catastrophic flood, caused by a rapid rise in the sea level at the end of the last ice age."

... exclusive ...

October 2002
Morien Institute
illustrated interview with
Professor Masaaki Kimura
of the University of the Ruykyus,
Okinawa, Japan, regarding
the discovery of:

"Megalithic structures found underwater off the coast of
Yonaguni-jima, Japan"

... exclusive ...

June 2002
John Michael of the
Morien Institute
illustrated interview with
Dr Paul Weinzweig
of Advanced Digital Communications,
Havana, Cuba, regarding
the discovery of:

"Megalithic urban ruins discovered off the coast of Cuba"