Author: Сергей (---.imb.lebedev.ru)
Date: 03-05-04 20:35
Maritime explorer Bob Ballard
is combing the floor of the
Black Sea in search of the
remains of ancient dwellings,
which would buttress a new
theory that a cataclysmic flood
struck the region some 7,000
years ago—swelling the sea
and eventually becoming the
basis of the Noah story.
• If the thesis is correct, signs of human
habitation should lie beneath the Black
Sea. A 1998 expedition, says Ballard,
reported “a series of features that appear
to be man-made structures.”
• Ballard’s 1999 expedition revealed an
ancient shoreline. Also found were shells
from freshwater and saltwater mollusk
species. Their radiocarbon dates support
the theory of a freshwater lake inundated
by the Black Sea some 7,000 years ago.
• “Now we’ve got to take it to the next
level,” says Ballard. Ballard and his team
will use sonar and remotely operated
vehicles to search for evidence of human
inhabitation, including buildings, pottery,
and ships.
• Nationalgeographic.com producer Sean
Markey is searching along with Ballard.
Join him on the Black Sea via dispatches
on the expedition's progress.
September 12, 2000
[Note: Nationalgeographic.com does not
research or copyedit dispatches.]
On Sunday, the long-awaited replacement
sonar for Argus arrived. Total installation
time? “Oh, about 10 minutes. Maybe five,”
ROV engineer Craig Elder tells me.
The team wastes little time putting it to
work. Following a scheduled personnel
transfer at Sinop, the Northern Horizon
transits back to the expedition search site,
specifically to an area about 8-10 miles
[13-16 kilometers] off the coast. The team
dives on it’s selected target, deploying the
remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) Argus
and Little Hercules. The vehicles now
operate in tandem for the second time and
are performing splendidly, 100 meters [328
feet] below the surface.
As Little Hercules skims above the sea
floor, video cameras mounted on Argus,
traveling above, display a birds-eye view of
the ROV. The smaller Little Hercules,
trailing its fiber-optic tether like a leash,
looks like a headlight-equipped computer
mouse navigating a foggy green sea floor.
At 12:57 a.m. the team spots the tell-tale
signs of amphorae-carrying ship wreck.
Some 350 clay amphorae—the tin cans and
glass bottles of antiquity—lie scattered on
the sea floor like an upturned box of Legos.
The shipping vessels’ distinct, tapering
shape (like carrots with round mouths and
handles) inform the archaeologists that the
ship originated in the nearby ancient
trading center of Sinop. (“We’ve got the
kilns [on land]” observes Dr. Fredrik
Hiebert.)
Nautical archaeologist Cheryl Ward, who
has joined the expedition team for four
days, makes a preliminary estimate. The
wreck is a 4th century, late Roman ship
roughly dating to 350 A.D.
The watch is ecstatic. In the control room,
Ballard congratulates his crew. “Alright. Not
bad,” he says. “A little too recent. 400 [sic]
A.D.”
The team logs and videotapes the site,
then moves on to investigate other targets.
(The wreck will be more closely
investigated at a later time.)
Two-and-a-half hours later, the team finds
yet another wreck. This ship appears
smaller than the first, but—surprisingly—a
number of wooden timbers from the hull
remain. [The team has not yet plumbed the
wood-preserving anoxic depths.] Ward, the
nautical archaeologist, makes a preliminary
estimate that the wreck is a Byzantine
amphorae-carrying ship dating sometime
around 550 A.D.
The shipwreck finds are significant. [“They
have the potential to educate us a great
deal,” Ward tells me later.]
The archaeologists are thrilled. Ballard
doesn’t quite share their enthusiasm.
“Rats,” he says. “It was supposed to be a
house.”
—Sean Markey
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html
Latest Dispatch
Dispatch 10: 1999 Black Sea
Expedition Test Results
November 17, 1999
(Note: Nationalgeographic.com does not
research or edit dispatches.)
In our last dispatch of July 21, 1999, we
reported that Ballard and team dredged the
Black Sea floor and hauled up shells and
other detritus. During the intervening
months, the samples were tested and
dated. The following conclusions were
announced by Ballard at the headquarters
of the National Geographic Society.
“Nine distinct species of mollusks were
identified by Gary Rosenberg of the
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
Seven of the species are saltwater
mollusks; the other two are extinct
freshwater mollusks, similar to species
found today in the freshwater Caspian
Sea.”
Samples of each shell species were
radiocarbon—dated by the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution. It found that
the saltwater species ranged in age from
2,800 to 6,820 years. The freshwater
species ranged from 7,460 to 15,500 years.
These tests support the theory that the
Black Sea was a freshwater lake until it
was flooded by the Mediterranean Sea
about 7,000 years ago. The tests suggest
the inundation of the Black Sea occurred
between 6,820 and 7,460 years ago.
Ballard plans to return to the Black Sea in
the summer of 2000 to look for evidence of
human settlements along the ancient flood
surface. Among the shells his team
collected in 1999 was a piece of obsidian
"that had no business being there,"
indicating, Ballard said, "the possibility of
human presence on the ancient beach. The
2000 expedition will look for evidence of
buildings, pottery and ships."
© 1999 National Geographic Society. All rights
reserved.
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