Cape Gelidonya, Turkey
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...a daily chronicle of INA's return to the first-ever excavation site of an ancient shipwreck on the seabed led by Dr. George F. Bass of INA in 1960.
Date - late 13th century B.C.
Depth - 26-28 m (86-92 ft)
Found by - Kemai Aras
Excavation - 1960
Cost - $18,000
Cargo - copper, tin, scrap, bronze
Hull - size unknown
"The place of the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck in the history of underwater archaeology, as the first ancient wreck excavated in its entirety on the seabed, is less important to me than how its excavation rewrote a significant part of the history of the Bronze Age.
In the introduction to this book, I describe how the excavation came about: how Peter Throckmorton reported a wreck of the Late Bronze Age (1600 to 1000 BC) to the University of Pennsylvania Museum, how I was asked to learn to dive and become archaeologist in charge of its excavation, and how I took the first six lessons of a ten-lesson YMCA diving course before heading for Turkey with Peter in the spring of 1960. I did not describe the physical and intellectual adventures that followed.
In mid-June I sailed on a sponge-diving boat from Bodrum, then the sponging center of Turkey, accompanied by a vessel that normally dragged for sponges with a net attached to a metal axle on wheels. Neither boat was more than 10 m (33 ft) long. I had no inkling that my life was changing forever." - George F. Bass
Source
Excerpt and Photo Captions
Bass, George F. "Cargo from the Age of Bronze: Cape Gelidonya, Turkey," in "Beneath the Seven Seas," edited by George F. Bass, pp. 48-55. New York and London, 2005.
Excavation director George Bass (left) and Peter Throckmorton puzzle over bits of wood and corroded bronze implements in the camp’s simple “conservation laboratory.”
- G. Bass
“We dug into the sand until we had two streams of fresh, cold water, which we dammed to form two basins. Between them we pitched our camp.” - G. Bass