Crimea Project - underwater expedition

Under this code name, archaeological work is being carried out in the coastal waters of southern Crimea, as part of a larger Polish-Ukrainian project – the Crimea Project.

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All the work is being carried out under the direction of Magdalena Nowakowska from the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, and Wieczesław Gierasmov from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, who is representing the Ukrainian side.

Already in ancient times there were many shipping routes in this part of the Black Sea and even then, these waters were not very kind to ships visiting them. In addition to the purely natural difficulties, piracy and robbery flourished in this area and ships also ended their lives as a result of warfare.

As part of the work carried out since 2007, divers are exploring the coastal waters in search of wrecks, anchorages and other sites of archaeological interest. In an initial phase, the project participants verify the information received from fishermen and casual divers by conducting side-scanner and echo sounder surveys. If the results are successful, they dive to obtain further results, which are then recorded photographically and drawn.

Over the past three years, the search has uncovered, among other things, anchorages from Byzantine times and, after more detailed examination, extensive accumulations of amphorae, as well as other objects presumed to be ship cargo. Some of the found artefacts were brought to the surface and preserved. It was also possible to locate the sites of marine catastrophes, as well as the location of wrecks from modern times.

The project involves students from IAUW and participants of the Underwater Archaeology Specialist Course carried out as part of one of the IAUW projects.

Source and Photo: crimeaproject.com