Black Sea Bounty: Shipwreck Found in ‘undiscovered world

Black Sea: Archaeologists usually dig deep into the earth, digging for treasures and artifacts from ancient cultures and civilizations.

It is easy to forget that some of these experts also investigate what lies beneath the dark, façade surfaces of the oceans and seas, looking for clues into the sea's past of many countries and cultures around the world.

The Black Sea has proved to be a boon for these marine archaeologists, as its waters are the cold temperatures required to preserve any artifacts that sink to the ocean floor. So when a ship falls into those waters, it remains almost as intact as the day it sank.

A group called the Maritime Archaeological Project (MAP) was working in the waters off the coast of Bulgaria, assessing the changing sea levels and how they have affected human communities over the years. (The group includes experts from around the world, including the U.K., France and the United States).

They literally hit the ship of the Ottoman Empire, which is 300 years old. The wreck is deep, at one level not hospitable to traditional diving. A team sent down a piece of equipment that had a camera affixed to it, and so they could see all kinds of details on the pieces of the vessel.

For example, parts of the mast have Islamic carvings, described by a team member as "absolutely beautiful". (His work investigating this wreck was videotaped for a future documentary).

The series of documentaries, produced by Sky History in the U.K., is entitled "Black Sea Mystery", which exposes many ships from this body of water, which were difficult for sailors to cross. The Black Sea, once the most dangerous for seafarers, is now a boon for those who seek and recover a ship.

The footage they received stunned the team; One team member said, "It's incredible. It's 300 meters down and we're watching it. We're looking for it. Right now…. For the first time!" The awe in his voice is unmistakable.

A map showing the location of the Black Sea and some of the major or major ports around it. The Sea of Azov and the Sea of Marmara are also labeled. Norman Einstein - CC BY-SA 3.0

Many marine archaeologists of several groups have also been exploring the Baltic Sea for years now, as it is very famous for the number of ships on its sea floor.

One such researcher, Velo Mas, said in 2004, "There are hundreds of Viking ships, hundreds of old merchant ships, hundreds of warships." The Baltic is an archaeological paradise. "

These two seas have given divers and archaeologists innumerable opportunities to learn how ancient sea creatures including the Vikings operate.

But the discovery is not made only in the deep, cold waters of the sea of ​​Scandinavia.

Curiously, a giant ship was found in September 2020, outside a luxury hotel in Stockholm while its renovation work was underway. Workers discovered planks and other artifacts that quickly made them realize that they possessed an important, significant relic.

Experts from the Maritime Museum were called and excavation of the ship began in earnest.

While this may seem an unusual place to find a ship - in the heart of a city - the location was soon explained by a spokesperson for the museum.

He said there was a naval shipyard, where boats were built and stored, in the same place where the hotel stands, until the end of the 17th century. Mystery solved.

These kinds of discoveries, whether they are made of smack in the middle of a city or deep at the bottom of the sea, teach us about the country's culture and history.