Ballard Chases History Again In The Black Sea
- From: Jack Linthicum <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:21:49 -0700
No treasure, just archaeology, underwater archaeology, naval
archaeology.
Ballard Chases History Again In The Black Sea
By Katie Warchut
Published on 8/14/2007
It's a painfully slow process, watching a robotic arm brush, inch-by-
inch, the sediment off a 900-year-old shipwreck 400 feet underwater in
the Black Sea.
But when the dust settles, Robert Ballard, president of the Institute
for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium, and his team hope to have a better
look into a time capsule of early human history.
About 6 miles off the coast of Ukraine, Ballard watched from a NATO
research vessel Monday on a high-definition plasma television screen.
The paintbrush uncovered what looked like a pewter cup at the bow of
the ship.
"What the heck is that, Mr. Expert?" Ballard asked a colleague while
speaking with The Day by phone. "We're all scratching our heads."
The ship, called Chersonesos A, is one of several already found in the
Black Sea, but marks Ballard's first deep-sea excavation effort there.
Its name refers to the ancient Greek colony off the coast of Crimea.
Once the Jell-O-like sediment is removed, the team of 47 scientists
and engineers can start recovering objects from the ship. As a cargo
ship, those objects could be containers that held wine, olive oil, or
fish, Ballard said.
"It's like stopping a random trailer truck and opening up the back,"
he said.
The items will be given to the Ukraine for conservation. The team
could also find remains of the ship's crew members, Ballard said.
Two factors make the Black Sea a treasure trove for the underwater
explorers. One, it is largely unexplored because access was cut off
during the Cold War. Two, its ships and other organic artifacts are
well-preserved.
Thousands of years ago, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake that was
later filled in by the Mediterranean Sea. The dense salt water sank to
the bottom and created an oxygen-free layer. In that part of the
water, there are no shipworms to destroy the wood, Ballard explained.
The excavation is part of a three-leg trip led by the institute at the
Mystic Aquarium and the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of
Oceanography. The first leg returned to the Sea of Crete in the
southern Aegean Sea, where researchers found evidence of landslides
that could have been triggered by volcanic events, earthquakes or
tsunamis.
The second part is the excavation of the Byzantine Era ship and
mapping of the seafloor around it. The third leg will compare the
Chersonesos to another ship in the southern part of the Black Sea,
called Sinop D, the fourth ship found off the coast of a province of
Turkey.
Though they expected the Chersonesos to be more poorly preserved than
the Sinop because of its depth, Ballard said researchers are learning
there may be internal waves or disturbances that move the zone of
oxygen-free water.
"It tells us the Black Sea is even more promising than we thought,"
Ballard said.
Ballard hopes the ships will lead to the discovery of even older ones.
"We're finding the I-95 highway of the ancient world," he said.
It's an area that dates back to the early origins of human beings.
Some people believe it's the location of the Biblical flood; others
the story of Jason and the Argo, he said.
"We just find out what the truth is," Ballard said. "Humans have been
coming here for a long, long time."
The expedition, which ends Aug. 27, will update the Black Sea exhibit
at the aquarium with new features.
Immersion Presents, a science-education program founded by Ballard,
will produce a series of 15-minute updates daily at noon on the Web
from Aug. 18 to 26. They will feature an introduction by Ballard, live
updates from Bridget Buxton, assistant professor of history at URI and
the expedition's archaeology director, and Katherine Croff, a doctoral
student at URI and chief scientist on the cruise, and an e-mail
question-and-answer session.
To see a live feed from the expedition, visit www.immersionpresents.org.
http://www.theday.com/re_print.aspx?re=0c06d4e6-5b58-44c7-a220-79492461fdb4
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