Advertisement

humansHumans
clockPUBLISHED

Incredible “Ship Graveyard” Discovered In Black Sea Features 2,500 Years Of Perfectly Preserved Ships

author

Katy Evans

author

Katy Evans

Managing Editor

Katy is Managing Editor at IFLScience where she oversees editorial content from News articles to Features, and even occasionally writes some.

Managing Editor

comments3Comments

A photogrammetric model of their final discovery of 2017, a 2,000-year-old Roman ship showing mast, tillers, and rope still attached. Black Sea MAP

A shipwreck lover’s dream has been discovered in the azure waters of the Black Sea: around 60 wrecks, from the Byzantine era to the 19th century, revealing 2,500 years of maritime history.

Described as a “ship graveyard” due to the sheer numbers, the plethora of ships found is not only incredible but some of them are in astonishingly good shape too.

Advertisement

The three-year project, Black Sea MAP, from the University of Southampton’s Centre for Maritime Archeology and funded by the EEF, is one of the largest marine archeological projects ever staged, and to begin with it wasn’t even searching for ships.

Researchers set out to complete geophysical surveys of the Black Sea to study the effects of climate change and how it had changed the environment along the Bulgarian coast. However, they found a whole lot more in this submerged world.

content-1505917194-photogrammetric-model
Photogrammetric model of a shipwreck from the Medieval period. (c) Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz

The earliest ship they found dates to the 4-5th century, and they go right through the Roman Empire, 10th-century Byzantine, and the Ottoman Empire, covering a period of 2,500 years and offering fascinating insight into seafaring routes and traditions.  

Researchers have called the discovery “unrivaled”, the ships’ locations revealing ancient patterns of trade, warfare, and communication as well as confirming structural ship design and features that could only have been guessed at or glimpsed in drawings before now.

Advertisement

‘‘We have never seen anything like this before,” said Dr Kroum Batchvarov, from the University of Connecticut, in an emailed statement. “This is history in the making unfolding before us.”

content-1505916158-roman-ship.PNG
Not bad for a 2,000-year-old Roman ship. You can still see the rope and tiller. Johan Rönnby/Black Sea MAP

The researchers used remotely operated vehicles (ROV) with high-resolution 3D cameras as well as high-def cameras, a laser scanner, lights, and geophysical equipment to survey the seabed. 

content-1505916588-images-taken-by-an-ro
Researchers used ROVs to photograph and document their discoveries, in this case a Roman vessel. Black Sea MAP


Luckily, below around 150 meters (492 feet), the Black Sea is anoxic, meaning the organisms that usually feast on anything organic cannot survive because there is little light or oxygen, so many of the ships are in surprisingly excellent condition.

“There's one medieval trading vessel where the towers on the bow and stern are pretty much still there,” Ed Parker, CEO of Black Sea MAP, said. “It's as if you are looking at a ship in a movie, with ropes still on the deck and carvings in the wood."

content-1505916821-photogrammetric-model
Photogrammetric model of a ship dated back to the Ottoman period. (c) Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz

Despite the excitement garnered by such a find, the team is keeping the locations of the ships secret to protect them while they study them. It wasn’t that long ago that the earliest human skeleton in the Americas was discovered by amateur divers, only for them to put it on social media and by the time excited scientists turned up it had been stolen

Luckily, these researchers had a television crew, one who has previously worked on the BBC's incredible David Attenborough-led Blue Planet, follow them through the three-year project. The incredible findings will be coming to a TV near you soon. 

content-1505917963-photogrammetric-model
Photogrammetric model of a Byzantine wreck with one of the ROVs. (c) Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz

ARTICLE POSTED IN

humansHumans
  • tag
  • Roman,

  • byzantine,

  • Black Sea,

  • shipwrecks,

  • Black Sea MAP,

  • ship graveyard,

  • Ottoman,

  • maritime history

FOLLOW ONNEWSGoogele News