Underwater archeology - Papers from 1960 to 2011
Authors:
Daniel Warre, Robert Church, Dr. Roy Cullimore,
Lori Johnston
In October 2003, investigations were undertaken by
C & C Technologies Inc., in conjunction with the
NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, Droycon
Bioconcepts, Inc. and the PAST Foundation, to
document the wreck site of the DKM U-166 in 5,000
feet of water in the Mississippi Canyon Area of the Gulf
of Mexico. At the time, the project was the deepest
archaeological investigation ever conducted in the
Gulf of Mexico. This project marked one of the first
instances that positioning technology that is routinely
used in the offshore oil and gas industry was utilized
on a deepwater archaeological investigation of a
shipwreck.
Authors:
G. Conte, S. M. Zanoli, D. Scaradozzi, L. Gambella, & V.
Calabrò
This paper proposes a methodology for a marine
archeological survey to extract as much information as
possible from a site with minimal time and in a non-
invasive way. In general, this is done by taking photos
and measurements of objects and terrain, which are
then used to construct representations of the site in the
form of maps.
In the proposed approach, standard manual
procedures for structuring the site and for gathering
data of the type, as mentioned above, have been
redesigned to exploit the potential of beneficial
cooperation between human operators and robotics
devices, such as ROVs.
Publisher:
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
In 2005 a Greek and American interdisciplinary team
investigated two shipwrecks off the coast of Chios
dating to the 4th-century b.c. and the 2nd/1st century.
The project pioneered archaeological methods of
precision acoustic, digital image, and chemical survey
using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and
in-situ sensors, increasing data acquisition speed while
decreasing costs. The AUV recorded data revealing the
physical dimensions, age, cargo, and preservation of
the wrecks. The earlier wreck contained more than
350 amphoras, predominantly Chian type, while the
Hellenistic shipwreck contained about 40 Dressel 1C
amphoras. Molecular biological analysis of two
amphoras from the 4th-century wreck revealed ancient
DNA of olive, oregano, and possibly mastic, part of a
cargo outbound from Chios.
Authors:
J. Batryn, A. Gonzalez, J. Lehr, T. Gambin, C. Forney, J.
Forreste, B. Bagley, W. McVicker, J. White, T. Smith,
C.M. Clark, and Z.J. Wood.
The authors present a methodology and algorithm for
the reconstrucion of three-dimensional geometric
models of ancient Maltese water storage systems, i.e.,
cisterns, from sonar data. This project was conducted
as a part of a four-week expedition on the islands of
Malta and Gozo.
During this expedition, investigators used underwater
robot systems capable of mapping ancient
underwater cisterns and tunnels. The mapping
included probabilistic algorithms for constructing the
maps of the sonar data and computer graphics for
surface reconstruction and visualization.
Authors:
B. Allotta, A. Caiti, M. Cocco, C. Colombo, W. Daviddi, L.
Gualdesi, D. La Monica, D. Moroni, G. Pieri, O. Salvetti,
& M. Tampucci.
This project aimed to develop multidisciplinary
methodologies and technologies to detect, catalog,
and document underwater artifacts and wreckage
with archaeological and ethno-anthropological value.
In particular, specially designed Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) were used to
systematically explore the sea floor, collecting and
analyzing in real-time heterogeneous data from
acoustic, optical, and magnetic sensors to promptly
detect objects of interest.
Published in 2013 by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization Endorsed by the
Scientific and Technical Advisory Body of the 2001
Convention on the Protection of the Underwater
Cultural Heritage
Authors: Eusebio Dizon, Barbara Egger, Dolores Elkin,
Pilar Luna Erreguerena, Robert Grenier, John Gribble,
Ulrike Guérin, Emad Khalil, Martijn Manders, Thijs
Maarleveld, Jean-Bernard Memet, Jasen Mesi´c, Xavier
Nieto Prieto, David Nutley, Iwona Pomian, Della Scott-
Ireton, Athena Trakadas and Robert Veccella.
Editors: Prof. Dr. Thijs Maarleveld, Dr. Ulrike Guérin,
Barbara Egger
Scientific responsibility: Prof. Dr. Thijs Maarleveld
Authors:
Brent M. Wilson, Donald L. Johnson, Hans VanTilburg,
Matthew A. Russell, Larry E. Murphy, James D. Carr,
Robert J. De Angelis, and David L. Conlin
The assessment of corrosion on the USS Arizona
included the pioneering development of a minimum-
impact cost-effective technique to determine the
corrosion rate of steel-hulled shipwrecks in seawater.
The technique, with potential application worldwide,
is illustrated in this paper with the application to a
World War II Japanese midget submarine submerged
in deep waters off the Oahu, Hawaii, coast.
Authors: N.C.Flemming, G.N.Bailey, V.Courtillot, G.King,
K.Lambeck, F.Ryerson, & C.Vita-Finzi
Submarine prehistoric archaeological sites on
Mediterranean coasts contribute to understanding
human migrations in the last 2 million years. "Out of
Africa", "Multi-regional", and "Trellis" models of human
origins and dispersal depend on what environments
attracted hominid and modern human occupation
and how temporal and spatial variations in
environments facilitated or impeded population
dispersal and gene flow. A determining factor for
migration routes and possible two-way dispersal across
potential boundaries was the level of the world ocean
and the degree of obstruction presented by straits,
channels, estuaries, and semi-enclosed seas...
The documents are classified chronologically.
Click on their descriptions to open and download them.
Authors:
K. O’Brien, S.Tikkanen, C. Lindblad, P.Flyg, A. Olsson,
O.Uldum, I. Aarestad, and D. Nævdal
Nordic Blue Parks is a concept that combines
underwater nature and cultural trails (wreck trails and
trails at other anthropogenic sites and constructions
under water). The project was initially designed to be a
one year pilot, trying to formulate criteria and
guidelines for sustainable blue parks and to set up trails
to test these concepts in four Nordic countries, i.e.
Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.