Sometimes the most incredible and surprising treasures are there, waiting for us in the most unexpected places, shapes, and times. The archaeologists of the Black Sea Project know something about it: in Bulgaria, they found themselves facing a spectacular underwater scene.
On the seabed of the Black Sea, submerged for more than 2,500 years, were 60 Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman ships. Ships that have gone through centuries and centuries of history and have come to us in surprisingly good condition and, more interestingly, by chance. Indeed, the research did not have a historical goal, but a very different goal.
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image credit: Black Sea MAP/Twitter
The exploration of this area of the Black Sea by the Black Sea Project began with the need to study the impact of climate change. Geophysical investigations, carried out using cutting-edge technologies, as well as the search for answers to global warming, ended up reserving researchers a completely unexpected surprise.
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image credit: Black Sea MAP/Twitter
The ships were there, resilient and fascinating, testifying to a very distant past that materialized in real objects. A veritable “cemetery” of wrecks, which have found in the Black Sea the ideal habitat to withstand the passage of time better than many others. The reason is simple: in the depths of these funds, the waters are anoxic, that is, they are devoid of oxygen. A condition that, associated with the weakness of the light, favored the preservation of ancient ships.
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image credit: Black Sea MAP/Twitter
Amphorae, rudders, masts, ceramics, holds filled with objects everything presented itself to researchers in an almost intact form.
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image credit: Black Sea MAP/Twitter
“We have never seen this kind of boat in real life – this is the comment of Ed Parker , administrator of the project – it feels like being in a movie”.
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image credit: Black Sea MAP/Twitter
One can easily believe it, by looking at the images of the archaeological excavation. A sensational discovery , one of the greatest ever made in the field of marine archeology.
Last seen 2,000yrs ago: #Roman #Shipwreck w. in-situ quarter rudders, depth: 2100m! courtesy #blackseamap for @unisouthampton #Archaeology pic.twitter.com/kpONbiMueT
— Shipwrecks (@UoSShipwrecks) September 21, 2017
Even though we think the past can never come back, sometimes it does, and when it does, it just leaves us speechless.
source of used: BBC