Shipwrecked!
If we had underwater photos of a shipwreck from today, it’s unlikely that there would be much wine on board. But that wasn’t the case in 350 BC off the coast of ancient Greece. Excellent new hi-res digital images of the wreck are now available thanks to a team of researchers using an automated underwater device. From the MIT press release:
The AUV scanned the scattered cargo and created a topographical sonar map while collecting thousands of high-resolution digital images, without ever physically touching the shipwreck. In all, 7,650 images were collected on four dives. Woods Hole ceanographic Institute archaeologists and engineers are assembling those images into mosaics that depict the minute features of the shipwreck with unmatched clarity and detail…
Much of the true value in cargo ships such as the Chios wreck is the information they provide about the networks that existed among the ancient Greeks and their trading partners. The wreck is “like a buried UPS truck. It provides a wealth of information that helps us figure out networks based on the contents of the truck,” said (MIT professor David) Mindell.
Thanks, BoingBoing!
tags: wine | ancient Greece | amphoras
On February 10th, 2006 at 3:03 pm ,Merely Human wrote:
Truly fascinating stuff. That kind of information is the real buried treasure in my opinion.