Background image by Legr0004 (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Guglielmo de Lorena was an Italian who invented the first modern diving bell, probably based on Aristotle's early descriptions of its use in the 4th century BC. From 1531-1535 he designed and built the bell which was basically a large 'bell' that rested on the user's shoulders and had a tube running from the surface into the bell that piped fresh air in so the inhabitant could breathe. Its early use was for commercial sponge fishing and salvaging sunken ships, for treasure or otherwise.
The motive of salvaging valuable materials lost in the water gave rise to an interest in sunken history. A notable example from 19th century England were the brothers John and Charles Anthony Deane who developed helmet diving equipment to salvage shipwrecks. Some of the wrecks they worked on were already old at the time, and they became increasingly fascinated in the historical rather than the monetary value of what they were recovering. So fascinated, indeed, that in order to publish their work, they commissioned beautifully scaled watercolour drawings of finds from such sites as the Mary Rose that they discovered in 1836. The Deanes had shifted from being salvers to maritime antiquarians.
The unusually low level of Lake Zurich in 1854 facilitated the discovery of hundreds of wooden piles driven into the earth, and stone tools of an ancient lake-dwellers’ village. This discovery received great attention among the scientific community in all of Europe and opened up a new scientific niche in underwater archaeology.
In 1861, a worked flint was found in the 'angular detritus' of the submarine forest at Porlock Weir and in 1869 William Boyd-Dawkins, together with the Reverend HH Winwood, examined the forest bed and further flints were discovered including a well-formed flake and chert chippings
Conrad Englehardt discovers and excavates the site of Nydam. His work uncovers several boat burials and a large quantity of ritually deposited weapons.
In Greece, the first real archaeological work was done in the late 19th century. The famous historian/topographer/ archaeologist, Dr. Heinrich Ulrichs, noted several aspects of the ancient quays of Athens and ancient harbours in the Piraeus. This was done during dives, and published - though only in note form - in 1873. He made estimates about the rise in relative sea level (which are quite close to modern estimates) based on the ancient remains found under water. Today, his reference is the only "remaining" testament to the ancient harbour of Phalerum, as the site has been totally overbuilt.
In 1874, Pitt Rivers wrote an extensive paper on "Early Modes of Navigation", that went into incredible detail. Some people may argue that this is the seminal work on 'maritime archaeology' as we know it. Pitt Rivers referred to canoes from Australia in his paper as well as comparisons right the way across the Pacific. He also talked of the 'stitched wood' used in South American canoes. It could be argued that Pitt Rivers was the father of 'navigational archaeology' or 'maritime' as we know it today.
Cecil Torr publishes 'Ancient Ships', addressing the use of historical and iconographic evidence to understand the ships and boats of the ancient Mediterranean.
The site of Antikythera in Greece is found by sponge divers and the recovered artefacts clearly demonstrate the archaeological and historical value of underwater sites.
Joan Mabel Frederica Du Plat Taylor was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 26 June 1906 and, despite no formal training, became one of the first maritime archaeologists. She campaigned to bring nautical archaeology into the academic fold. She was instrumental in establishing the Council for Nautical Archaeology and was founder editor of the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (IJNA) from 1972–1980. She also recognised that amateurs could play an important role in archaeology and established systems to educate and encourage them. She was the first president of the Nautical Archaeology Society. She personally funded a grant to support publication of nautical archaeological research. Since her death, the award has continued to be given by the Nautical Archaeology Society as the Joan du Plat Taylor Award.
The Mahdia shipwreck was found in 1907 by sponge divers off the Tunisian coast.
Odo Blundell begins to excavate crannogs in Loch Ness, Scotland.
Clement Reid publishes his work on submerged forests.
The first volume of the journal 'Antiquity' is published. The first article is on the importance of prehistoric submerged landscapes.
The Nemi Ships were ships built by the Roman emperor Caligula in the 1st century AD at Lake Nemi. Mussolini enjoyed something of a public relations coup as his engineers drained Lake Nemi to reveal two enormous Roman ships creating a more or less explicit link between his regime and the world of all-powerful Roman emperors. Recovered from the lake bed in 1929, the ships were destroyed by fire in 1944.
Carl Ekman investigated the Swedish warship Elefanten, between 1933 and 1939. His work was systematic and remarkably modern in that it was carried out for predefined reasons of research and heritage preservation rather than casual curiosity or financial gain.
Jesuit priest Pere Antoine Poidebard (1878-1955) surveys Levantine harbours using aerial photography. Poidebard taught in Beirut and became fascinated by the ancient ruins of the Middle East and convinced that utilising small aircraft he could see landmarks better than from the ground.
Ted Wright discovered the remains of the Ferriby 1 boat on the banks of the river Humber in north-east England. The vessel dates to the Bronze Age and is one of the earliest plank-built boats in the world.
Basil Brown begins the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon burial mounds at the site of Sutton Hoo, in East Anglia, England. The excavations reveal the remains of a very large oared vessel and an array of ornate grave goods.
One of the great pioneers of diving Jacques Yves Cousteau, with his collaborator, Emile Gagnon, developed the aqualung, a modern form of Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Cousteau’s attempts at underwater archaeology weren't particularly successful, but he did set a precedent and demonstrated the facility of the new equipment not just for archaeology, but for all underwater science in the shallow zone.
James Hornell publishes 'Water Transport: Origins and Evolution'. This book sets the agenda for how the discipline considers watercraft and their development for decades to come.
Radiocarbon dating is a method of determining the age of an objects containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon (14C), a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was invented by Willard Libby in the late 1940s and soon became a standard tool for archaeologists. It depends on the fact that radiocarbon is constantly being created in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting radiocarbon combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then acquire 14C by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and from that point onwards the amount of 14C it contains begins to reduce as the 14C undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of 14C in a sample from a dead plant or animal such as piece of wood or a fragment of bone provides information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died. The oldest dates that can be reliably measured by radiocarbon dating are around 50,000 years ago, although special preparation methods occasionally permit dating of older samples.
Thor Heyerdhal set out to demonstrate through an experimental expedition that the Pacific could have been settled from South America, rather than Asia.
One of the most remarkable early underwater archaeological excavations was that undertaken at Fos-sur-mer by Dr Rene Beaucaire from 1948 onwards. The site itself was a Roman port of the second century BC which was partially inundated. Beaucaire carried out excavations on land and underwater, diving himself and working with a team of volunteers who had previously been engaged in digging at prehistoric sites in Provence under his supervision, and had learned free diving techniques to carry out the work at Fos-sur-Mer. All of the techniques of terrestrial archaeology - a preliminary survey followed by detailed mapping of the site, planned methodical conservation of precisely located and identified artefacts, effective exhibition of suitable finds, and careful documentation and publication - were features of this extraordinary undertaking, which appears to have been almost entirely ignored outside of France. Although not nautical in nature, this was maritime archaeology carried out to the highest standards, and it is surprising that Beaucaire's accomplishment has been consigned to obscurity. (From: Maritime Archaeology: A Reader of Substantive and Theoretical Contributions edited by Lawrence E. Babits, Hans Van Tilburg)
HMS Implacable was a 74-gun ship, originally built in 1800 in France, before being captured by the Royal Navy in 1805. The vessel was scuttled to save money and the subsequent outcry raises maritime heritage to the public eye. The reaction to the 'criminal action against the maritime history of Britain' forces the government to support the preservation of the Cutty Sark.
The Albenga shipwreck is discovered off the coast of France and the excavation is overseen by Nina Lamboglia. This large wreck consisted of a tumulus up to 2m high, 30 x 10m, almost completely unconcreted, buried in silt. Over 1200 amphorae have been raised from a debated 9 or 6 layers, which may originally have totalled between 5,000 and 13,500 amphorae
Clark’s research in the 1950s was primarily concerned with Europe, and perhaps the most important of his books for the impact it had on prehistorians throughout the world at this time was Prehistoric Europe: The Economic Basis (Clark 1952). This is a major erudite piece of scholarship that showed as never before on this scale the way archaeological data can be used to reveal the economy of foraging and farming communities, the strategies, diet and nutrition, settlement patterning, and social organisation. ‘This book’, he says, ‘is concerned with the ways in which early man, in competition with other forms of life, maintained himself on European soil since the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, and with how he managed not merely to survive, but to raise his standards from those of savages to those of peasants ready to support the full weight of civilisation’. The volume is full of verified archaeological data, and exhaustive knowledge of material culture and art used to amplify and clarify the buried cultural residues.
A competition is held by Hjemmet in Denmark to find the country's oldest submerged archaeological site.
A well-preserved and complete ship is found in a sealed chamber next to the Great Pyramid of Pharoah Khufu at Giza, Egypt.
Jacques Cousteau uses SCUBA to recover artefacts from the Roman shipwreck at Grand Congloue off the southern French coast.
The ACUA has been at the forefront of underwater archaeology for more than 50 years. Its genesis as the Council on Underwater Archaeology was in 1959 and its purpose was fully realized at a meeting in 1963 when a group of archaeologists, historians, and sport divers met in St. Paul, Minnesota for the first international Conference on Underwater Archaeology (CUA). The first joint conference with the then fledgling Society for Historical Archaeology was held in 1970. By 1973, the present structure and name of the ACUA were established and shortly thereafter a merging of conferences occurred. In 2003, a Memorandum of Agreement between the ACUA and the SHA was signed, formalizing the relationship between the two organizations.
Since the early 1960s Ulrich Ruoff has started to develop methods of surveying, recording, excavating and managing of the underwater cultural heritage in the wetland and underwater environment of the Swiss lakes. Numerous excavations including the famous works at Kleiner Haffner and finally at Mozartstraße in the lake of Zürich have led the Swiss teams to become the most advanced and leading teams in underwater archaeology.
George Bass, Honor Frost and Peter Throckmorton begin the excavation of the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck site in Turkey.
Spargi wreck in Sardinia discovered and excavated by Nino Lamboglia
The hull of the 17th century Swedish warship Vasa is raised from Stokholm harbour. The vessel sank on its maiden voyage in 1628.
Tim Severin is a British explorer, historian and writer. Severin is noted for his work in retracing the legendary journeys of historical figures. Severin was awarded both the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He received the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for his 1982 book The Sindbad Voyage.
Bremen cog or Bremer Kogge is a well preserved wreck of a cog dated to 1380, found in 1962 in Bremen. Today it is displayed at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven as one of the main features. Three nearly identical replicas of this cog have been built: Ubena von Bremen, Hansekogge and Roland von Bremen. On 8 October 1962 wooden fragments of a ship were found in the Weser River during dredging operations. They turned out to be remnants of a cog that seems to have sunk during a storm flood after drifting away from a shipyard before completion. Until then cogs had only been known from medieval documents and seals. Based on the dendrochronological analysis of the oak timber from which the cog was built the ship was dated to about 1380 AD.
The Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) started out in 1964 as the Council for Nautical Archaeology (CNA), which had the remit to act as a channel of communication between divers and the appropriate learned bodies to share discoveries within the field of marine archaeology.
Michael Katzev begins the excavation at the Kyrenia shipwreck off the north coast of Cyprus.
Harold Edgerton first used side scan sonar successfully to locate a modern wreck site off the Massachusetts coast, the Vineyard Lightship, in 1963. The first side scan sonar search to positively identify an ancient shipwreck (off the coast of Turkey in 1967) was conducted with a side scan sonar of his design, by a former MIT student of his, Martin Klein (MIT ’62) near the site of Yalikavak in SW Turkey. Only a couple of months later, using both a side scan sonar and a sub-bottom profiler, Edgerton and his team assisted in locating the Mary Rose (King Henry VIII’s flagship) which sank in 1545. Edgerton used his mud penetrator to search for the ancient harbor city of Helike, lost to an earthquake in the fourth century BCE – although his searches did not prove successful. Nevertheless Edgerton’s field and lab notes indicate that although specific targets might not always have been identified, nonetheless the sheer volume of sonar testing data retrieved, made his trips a success in his eyes.
Discovered by divers from the French Navy Diving School in 1967, the archaeological investigations of the Roman wreck at Madrague de Giens constituted the first large scale, “truly scientific underwater excavation[s] carried out in France”. The wreck lies at around 18 to 20 metres depth off the coast of the small fishing port of La Madrague de Giens on the Giens peninsula, east of Toulon, on the southern Mediterranean coast of France. Sunk around 75-60 BCE, the vessel has been found to be “a large merchantman of considerable tonnage - 400 tons deadweight with a displacement of around 550 tons”, making it one of the largest Roman wrecks excavated, with only the wreck at Albenga, Italy (around 600 tons deadweight) exceeding it at the time of its discovery. The vessel wrecked at Madrague de Giens measured around 40 metres in length; “showed a sharp bottom with “wine glass” section and a prominent keel creating a large leeboard”; displayed extended raking of the stem and stern; and had two masts. The hull was characterised by a reverse stempost in the shape of a ram with a big cutwater which “must have given... [the] craft high-performance sailing qualities”. The ship sunk while transporting a large cargo of wine and black glazed pottery from Italy. It is not known why it sank.
The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is Denmark's national museum for ships, seafaring and boatbuilding in the prehistoric and medieval period. The main focus of the museum is a permanent exhibition of five original Viking ships excavated nearby in 1962. The Viking Ship Museum also conducts research and educate researchers in the fields of maritime history, marine archaeology and experimental archaeology. Various academic conferences are held here and there is a research library in association with the museum. The Viking Ship Museum has a long tradition of Viking ship reconstructions and boat building and also collects boats of interest from all over Scandinavia. The boat collection at the museum now comprise more than 40 vessels and the associated ship building yard is constantly building new ships by original methods as part an experimental archaeology learning process.
Polyethyleneglycol (PEG) becomes a standard approach for the long-term conservation of waterlogged wooden material.
Archaeological excavation of the Batavia East Indiaman off the coast of Western Australia.
Artefacts salvaged by divers from the wreck of HMS Association are sold at auction for profit.
Honor Frost begins working on the site of a Punic shipwreck off Marsala in Sicily.
In 1972, Mexican archaeology experienced a major transformation due to the enactment of a Federal Law about archaeological, artistic, and historical monuments and zones, which changed the Mexican Government’s administration of Mexican archaeological heritage.
The NMSA was first passed into law in 1972. Since then, Congress has amended and reauthorised it in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000. The last reauthorisation (in 2000) authorized funds through the end of fiscal year 2005. Among other things, the amendments to the NMSA over the years have modified the process of how sites are designated, given the Secretary the authority to issue special use permits, enhanced the ability to enforce the Act, and established civil liability for injury to sanctuary resources.
The CNA established the first journal dedicated solely to the discipline of maritime archaeology: International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (IJNA).
One of the first national acts dedicated to the protection of shipwrecks because of their archaeological and/or historical significance.
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