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Black Sea '01 Expedition
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Overview Intro to the Black Sea The Flood Theory The Flood Theory (pt 2) The Shipwreck Museum The 2001 Expedition
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Due to Ryan & Pitman's Flood Theory and the anoxic zone, it's easy to see why many underwater archaeologists consider the Black Sea to be the Superbowl of field research. There are two remarkable types of submerged remains to look for: prehistoric human habitations (drowned in a catacylsmic flood) and perhaps the best preserved ancient ships in the world. So what have archaeological expeditions turned up so far? BULGARIAN EXPEDITIONS The Cold War prevented western researchers from conducting significant investigations of the Black Sea until the 1990's. Furthermore, the technology for deep water archaeological investigation hasn't become readily available until recently. Also, Ryan & Pitman's theory was only published in the late 1990's, so the impetus to search the shallow zones for flooded habitations is new.
One day, while scooting along in a three-man submersible, Petko and his team came across an intriguing artifact on the seafloor. They were to able to capture the large sandstone plate and bring it ashore. Unfortunately, you can't use carbon-14 dating on sandstone (stone never used to be alive), and the plate was found without any archaeological context: it might be from a submerged habitation, it might have drifted from another wreck, or it might've been tossed off a ship (when a sailor rejected the cook's morning gruel). The most famous thing about "Noah's Plate" (as it is known), is that some believe markings along the side are an ancient form of writing, previously unknown. (While I have seen the plate, my opinion in ancient linguistics is worth precisely nothing so I won't say anything.) The jury is still out on the source of both the plate and its markings, but it is certainly intriguing. THE BLACK SEA TRADE PROJECT Ryan & Pitman themselves were able to make several trips to the Black Sea during the Cold War, on the invitation of Russian scientists, collecting geological evidence that would become part of the American duo's theory of abrupt Bosphorus flooding. In 1996, the renowned Near East archaeologist Fred Hiebert from the University of Pennsylvania launched the Black Sea Trade Project (BSTP). Hiebert made a name for himself with his research on the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between ancient East and West; he made front-page headlines when he discovered a stamp seal in Turkmenistan, inscribed with an unknown langauge. He started the BSTP in an effort to study ancient terrestrial and sea-bound trade systems of the Black Sea region, starting with Turkey in the south. Several expeditions have been mounted to date, with a unique coordination of terrestrial and underwater surveys ("from mountaintop to ocean bottom," as Hibert describes it). Besides Black Sea trade, the researchers were also intrigued by Willard Bascom's theory that deep-water wrecks in the anoxic zone will be uncannily preserved. The Black Sea is large though, so before any sonar survey could be conducted, the marine teams needed to know even generally where to look. And that's where Hiebert and the land portion of the BSTP came in: reconstructing ancient trade routes across the Black Sea by studying historical and comparing artifacts from different ports. The project grew over time and other academic institutions joined the scientific scavenger hunt. Serious land surveys were conducted in 1998 and 1999 (for which you can read a great web journal by team member Will Dickinson). Each season, these land surveys were complemented by offshore sonar and ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) investigations, led by David Mindell of MIT's Deep Archaeology Research Group. Dr. Hiebert not only directed the land surveys around the port of Sinop, he also worked closely with Mindell's underwater crew. One of his jobs was talking to local fishermen in bars to find out where their nets may have picked up any artifacts (which might very well indicate the locatino of a wreck). Some fascinating results came of these expeditions (though most of it does not relate to the material on this website). Several wrecks were discovered but none in the anoxic zone. By the end of 1999 season, bathymetric evidence had been compiled which pointed more directly to an ancient shoreline, leading Mindell to state, "I'm not sure whether it's Noah's flood, or not Noah's flood. But I do buy that there was a flood." (Washington Post article on the 1999 expedition). And then during the 2000 season, the dam burst.  THE 2000 EXPEDITION
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 Open the National Geographic website on the 2000 expedition Download a scientific paper on the 2000 expedition (12MB pdf file; article starts on page 35) |
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BACKGROUND As far back as 1994, the anoxic preservation of the Black Sea caught the attention of Robert Ballard, the world-famous ocean explorer who discovered the Titanic in 1985. Under the auspices of the National Geographic Society, Ballard's Insitute for Exploration (IFE) joined Hiebert and Mindell, et al, in the waters off Turkey. Ballard had been inspired long ago by Willard Bascom's vision of an intact ancient shipwreck at the bottom of the Black Sea, and he wanted to use Hiebert's reconstructions of ancient trade routes as a road map to that discovery. His curiosity also piqued by "Noah's Flood", Bill Ryan and Walter Pitman's book about an abrupt flooding of the Bosphorus, Ballard was interested further in searching for submerged habitations. On both counts, the expedition was a remarkable success. The 2000 IFE trip off Turkey (for which you can read the IFE's 2000 online journal) was the expedition of a lifetime. The stunning results made headlines around the world and became the focus of a dramatic National Geographic video ("The Quest for Noah's Flood", narrated by a scary, deep voice). In this single expedition, the team found strong evidence for a submerged human habitation (lovingly called "Site 82") and also discovered the first anoxically preserved ship in the Black Sea, realizing Bascomb's vision. "Discovering Archaeology" magazine gave the researchers the honor of "Best Discovery of 2000". SITE 82 The fervor all began one day when the IFE team was tracing an ancient river channel off the Turkish coast. The sonar picked up an area of strong return with (drumroll please) right angles. Clear right angles on sonar are a dead giveaway for human design. Site 82, meaning the 82nd target logged by sonar operators, is a small, 13' x 26' plot on the continental shelf, 311 ft (95 m) below the surface. (Note that the recreational limit for SCUBA divers is 130 ft [40 m].) The photo above shows the IFE's unmanned robot scooting around over Site 82. After Ballard reviewed a block of sonar targets, the R/V Northern Horizon returned to Site 82 one September morning and deployed Argus and Little Hercules for a closer investigation. This robotic tag-team is made up of an optical towsled, Argus, and the manueverable ROV called Little Hercules. They are equipped with cameras and lighting for imaging and superficial investigation of submerged features. The remarkable images they returned to the thrilled team members on the surface showed significant signs of human habitation at Site 82, including stone tools and ceramic fragments. (Being above the anoxic zone, and thus unshielded from the mindless fury of wood-boring molluscs, Site 82 has no ancient wood, only driftwood from modern times.) Site 82 also boasted architectural features consistent with the building style on land from the 6th millenium BC. As Hiebert explained to the Pennsylvania Gazette, "It was astonishing...here were hewn beams in a rectangular form along with branches that seemed to be stuck in layers of mud," Hiebert said. "What we were looking at was a melted building made out of wattle and daub." It was, he said, "the typical type of construction for the ancient inhabitants along the Black Sea coast. And here we're seeing it under 300 feet of water."ANALYSIS OF SITE 82 Even though Little Hercules was designed for "look-but-don't-touch" investigation, the researchers jury-rigged a basket to Little Hercules so they could scoop up an artifact for radiocarbon dating. After approval from the Turkish government , they raised material to be analyzed in an archaeological laboratory. Everyone knew that if the material at Site 82 dated into the same timeslot as Ryan & Pitman's proposed flood, then bam, the Flood Theory is proved (or at least the salient parts of the theory were proved). It's not every day you find remnants of civilization 300 feet underwater. Understandbly, the IFE's announcement that they had discovered a submerged habitation in the Black Sea sparked a minor media circus. And based on the previously discussed misconceptions about the Flood Theory, it should not come as a surprise that several of the news reports were seriously misleading (such as my favorite: "Noah's House found"). |
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Look at a cross-section of the Black Sea, showing where Wreck D and Site 82 were found |
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WRECK D But even after the remarkable discovery of Site 82, the 2000 expedition was not over yet, as the Northern Horizon had not finished surveying the deep waters for anoxically preserved shipwrecks. Just near the end of the cruise, the crew, led by Dwight Coleman, was investigating a strong sonar target with the ROVs when a large piece of wood in the anoxic zone came into view. Following it down 30 feet more with the ROV's cameras (holding their breaths the entire time), the researchers were thrilled to discover that this wood was the mast of an intact ancient wreck. There is even a little piece of rigging line still hanging from the mast. Keep in mind that wrecks older than a few hundred years are in normal circumstances devoid of everything organic, including the wooden craft itself. Here Bascom's theory had been confirmed in most dramatic fashion, and another discovery of a lifetime had been made.
As Dr. Hiebert explained to me, "Wreck D confirms that the deep water of the Black Sea preserves wood intact -- thus the Black Sea is now thought to be the best potential place in the world for finding intact ships of much greater age." He also cites evidence from his land surveys on the Turkish coast which suggest there was a 5000 year old port at Sinop. This sparks the remarkable possibility that the oldest ships in the entire world might be preserved intact at the bottom of the Black Sea. Another interesting result of the 2000 expedition is that it produced our first video footage of the Black Sea's anoxic zone, revealing a wasteland snowed with dead plankton. It truly looks like another planet. FUTURE STUDY
(Another question on every ancient anthropologist's mind is, if indeed Site 82 is a habitation from 5600 BC, were the inhabitants nomads or permanent settlers? This is a cruical question because sometime in the neolithic period [meaning the late Stone Age], there was a shift in human lifestyle from a mobile hunter/gatherering existence to a more fixed agricultural society. With local crops and herds to attend to, people began to build more permanent digs. Therefore, the origin of agriculture can be seen as a major step in the origin of civilization and therefore -- since many of the key developments in early agriculture (such as the domestication of certain crop strains) are only believed to have happened once -- pinning the origins of agriculture to a specific geographical region and time period would be an enormous breakthrough in the field of history.) |
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Site by Chad Parmet: chadparmet@comcast.net | home.comcast.net/~chadparmet |
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