![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/files\/2012\/05\/YA7_13B.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Recreation of the ship at Yassi Ada: Picture reference<\/a>)<\/p>\n I came across a \u201cThis American Life\u201d episode titled, \u201cContents Unknown<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The theme of this episode was \u201cstories of filling in the blank,\u201d so a story about an archaeological excavation fit in naturally.\u00a0 The segment within the episode titled, “He Shapes Ship Shapes by the Sea Shore<\/a>” tells the story of the archaeological excavation of the Byzantine shipwreck at Yassi Ada through the eyes of Fred van Doorninck, the assistant director of the project, and George Bass, the director of the project.\u00a0 The reason Doorninck and Bass\u2019s story fits so well into this episode about \u201cfilling in the blank\u201d is due not only to the fact that they uncovered important insight into the Byzantine Empire but also because they had to be incredibly innovative and creative when it came to their methodology of excavation.\u00a0\u00a0 The field was incredibly new and in fact this project is often viewed as one of, if not the first, complete underwater archaeological excavations.\u00a0 Since there really wasn\u2019t any information about how to properly conduct underwater archaeology without destroying the site of study, Doorninck and Bass ended up inventing some techniques that have been the foundation of underwater archaeology techniques that are frequently used today.<\/p>\n (Fred van Doorninck at Yassi Ada. \u00a0Picture reference<\/a>)<\/p>\n One of the first problems they faced was the fact the scuba diving was very new, and they could only search the shipwreck for approximately twenty minutes.\u00a0 Another problem lay in the material that encased the ship: saltwater.\u00a0 The problem was to search the ship and extract information and samples without destroying, which they claimed could easily happen simply when brushing sand away from the ship.\u00a0 They finally came up with the brilliant idea of sharpening bicycle spokes and sticking fragments of the ship onto them with the ultimate goal of recreating the ship.\u00a0 More information about the structure of the ship was based on the indentation the ship made in the sand.\u00a0 Doorninck finally collaborated with scholars of naval architecture to produce a sound model of what the ship looked like.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the biggest breakthroughs in their research was the discovery of an inscription on an amphora.\u00a0 After many years of research, they discovered that the inscription indicated the captain of the ship was a priest.\u00a0 Many priests were in fact captains of ships because many Christian churches apparently owned ships during this time period.\u00a0 The ship also had many similarly shaped and sized amphoras in it implying that people during this time period had access to factories and mass production, which meant accessibility to much more technologically advanced resources than had previously been thought.\u00a0 Ultimately the researchers hypothesized that this ship was lent to the Byzantine army by the church indicating that the relationship between the Christian church and army was much more intertwined than had originally been thought.<\/p>\n I personally loved this story.\u00a0 The facts of the project really are inspiring and truly show how important archaeology can be in uncovering histories and stories of the past while also demonstrating the innovative techniques and problem solving skills that accompany this field of study.\u00a0 What I enjoyed most though, was listening to Doorninck and Bass talk about the project.\u00a0 In the past, I have often stereotyped archaeologists as super serious scholars who don\u2019t really have any emotions or joke around because they are so invested in their work.\u00a0 During the episode, Doorninck actually jokes that putting the ship together was almost \u201c\u2026 impossible\u2026If there had been one less fragment\u2026I wouldn\u2019t have been able to put the pieces together.\u201d\u00a0 I definitely recommend listening to this episode.\u00a0 The interaction between the two scholars is refreshing as they truly convey the great amount of respect they have for each other and passion they both have for the project.<\/p>\n The following video is the first part of a video about the beginnings of underwater archaeology. \u00a0It’s pretty awesome to see some of the actual artifacts found (skip to 2:30) as well as the old school scuba gear (skip to 3:00).<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Lt8WCd6Le4k<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic has drawn quite a bit of attention to underwater archaeology, I decided to post about a different underwater archaeology project: the ancient Byzantine shipwreck at Yassi Ada, located right … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>picture reference<\/a><\/p>\n