What is sea archeology?

Marine Archaeology, also known as maritime archeology, is a study of underwater artifacts and landscapes. This often means studying ships, although other interesting submarine archaeological features, such as the remains of prehistoric camps in the North Sea, or the remnants that go when the earthquake spoils the land under the port city like Port Royal in Antille. Usually the artifacts will disintegrate rapidly, but in some cases, only one of the few hundreds is to maintain remarkable and artifacts that would have been disintegrated for a long time or were plundered if they stay on the ground. One of the famous examples is the wreck Mary Rose , a war ship from Tudor, which sank in the battle with the French in 1545.

Some of the most fascinating archaeological evidence of the ancient world come from very old ships with preserved materials. The oldest ship to be investigated in the area of ​​mOra archeology, dates back to the Bronze Age, with some ships and canoes dating back to 1400 BCE or earlier. One of the most famous is the ship Uluburun, a well -preserved shipwreck from the south coast of Turkey with extensive cargo. The cargo included ivory, ivory ivory, copper ingots, tin ingots, non -working glass, Egyptian ebens, gold, ostrich eggs, Terebint resin, ivory vessel, golden chalice, various jugs, lamps and ligaments, Italian darkness, and others. Such large findings of intact material are very rare in archeology above the surface, the discovery of the bomb of the pharaoh is one of the primary and only examples.

Another main class of impressive ships in marine archeology is the late bronze and early iron era in Greece and Rome. The huge pleasure of the Roman Emperor Caligula boats were uncovered in the lake Nemi in Italy, where fresh water fits better to preserve wood and artifacts. One of these (fragmentary) boats was 104 m (341 ft) long, thirdThe largest wooden ship ever built, while the larger ship was not built until about 1800 years later. He called "Caligula's giant ship", was six packages and could hold more than 1,000 people. The giant Caligula ship came to symbolize the hedonism and selfishness of Caligula and other Roman emperors such as Nero.

One common, highly speculative association of marine archeology in the public mind is that with the possible discovery of Atlantis. Although Atlantis was obviously a literary facility invented to describe his ideal society, many people have been deceived for thousands of years to think that it really exists, which caused extensive underwater investigation. In fact, some of these investigations have discovered some interesting artifacts, but in any case they were associated with the well -known cultures of ancient world, never a brand new and undiscovered culture.