A wreck lover ’s dream has been discovered in the azure amnionic fluid of the Black Sea : around 60 wreck , from the Byzantine era to the 19th century , divulge 2,500 years of marine history .
discover as a “ ship graveyard ” due to the sheer number , the superfluity of ships found is not only incredible but some of them are in astonishingly in force material body too .
The three - twelvemonth project , Black Sea MAP , from the University of Southampton ’s Centre for Maritime Archeology and funded by the EEF , is one of the turgid marine archeological projects ever staged , and to get down with it was n’t even searching for ships .
investigator position out to make out geophysical surveys of the Black Sea to study the effects of climate change and how it had changed the environment along the Bulgarian sea-coast . However , they found a whole wad more in this submerged world .
The earliest ship they found date to the 4 - 5th C , and they go right through the Roman Empire , tenth - C Byzantine , and the Ottoman Empire , cover a period of 2,500 years and offer fascinating insight into seafaring itinerary and traditions .
research worker have called the discovery “ unrivaled ” , the ship ’ locations bring out ancient patterns of trade , warfare , and communication as well as confirming structural ship design and feature that could only have been guessed at or glimpsed in drawings before now .
‘ ‘ We have never see anything like this before , ” suppose Dr Kroum Batchvarov , from the University of Connecticut , in an emailed statement . “ This is story in the making flowering before us . ”
The researchers used remotely operated vehicles ( ROV ) with mellow - resolution 3D cameras as well as eminent - def cameras , a laser electronic scanner , lights , and geophysical equipment to survey the seabed .
Luckily , below around 150 meters ( 492 foot ) , the Black Sea is anoxic , meaning the being that unremarkably banquet on anything constitutive can not survive because there is piffling light or oxygen , so many of the ship are in surprisingly excellent condition .
“ There ’s one chivalric trading watercraft where the towers on the curtain call and arse are reasonably much still there , ” Ed Parker , chief operating officer of Black Sea MAP , said . “ It ’s as if you are looking at a ship in a film , with forget me drug still on the deck of cards and cutting in the wood . "
Despite the excitement garnered by such a find , the squad is go on the locations of the ship secret to protect them while they study them . It was n’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 spiritualist and by the time excited scientists ferment upit had been slip .
fortunately , these researchers had a telecasting crew , one who has antecedently worked on the BBC ’s incredible David Attenborough - ledBlue Planet , postdate them through the three - year project . The incredible finding will be coming to a TV near you soon .
