Archaeology on a modern wreck. Malta Training School day 4

If the wreck is metal, is it no longer archaeology? Of course it is, but what if the wreck has been lying at the bottom for 10 years? Is it still archaeology or not? Maybe not, but it is a great training ground.

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We sail to a modern wreck sunk 10 years ago as an attraction for divers. It was a 30-40 meter long cutter in the service of the Maltese Navy. The water is so clear that you can see the whole silhouette of the vessel by diving your head in. The wreck itself is very diver-friendly. It has very wide hatches and is very pleasant to explore, not only from the outside but also from the inside. But we do not dive on it for sightseeing.

Each student gets a camera. Then they have to choose a part of the wreck and take photographs, from which a photogrammetric model will be created later in the evening. Taking pictures underwater is not an easy task. But taking 40-50 pictures of one object centimetre by centimetre in the right order without stopping is extremely difficult. There are several things to remember. You have to be about half a metre away from the subject. You cannot disturb the sediment at all times, because the computer will reject such pictures in later processing.

Each image should show the subject a few centimetres further away than the previous one. There are many more factors to keep in mind but a blog is not a photogrammetry textbook. Some of the students work so hard that they don’t notice the air running out. However, the parners are alert and it all ends in nothing but laughter.

The evening lectures deal with sea level changes based on geomorphological studies. Sea level reconstruction, essential for the study of underwater archaeological sites from the Stone Age, is very complex. It requires the analysis of many geological, hydrological or archaeological factors. Finally, we look at the results of our activities today, which are slightly different in quality from what the professional showed us.

Man learns and improves throughout his life. So it should be with science. We strive to improve our methods. To make them more accurate, faster and more perfect. Photogrammetry is one of those methods and I hope that in a few years it will become a standard in Polish underwater archaeology.

More information on underwater.net

Source: podwodna.net
Photo Jorgen Johansen