www.archaeology.ws/archive

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6676461.stm

Ice Age blast 'ravaged America'

 

A controversial new idea suggests that a large space rock exploded over North America 13,000 years ago.

 

The blast may have wiped out one of America's first Stone Age cultures as well as the continent's big mammals such as the mammoth and the mastodon.

 

The blast, from a comet or asteroid, caused a major bout of climatic cooling which may also have affected human cultures emerging in Europe and Asia.

 

Scientists will outline their evidence this week at a meeting in Mexico.

 

Their impact theory shouldn't be dismissed; it deserves further investigation

Jeff Severinghaus, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

The evidence comes from layers of sediment at more than 20 sites across North America.

 

These sediments contain exotic materials: tiny spheres of glass and carbon, ultra-small specks of diamond - called nanodiamond - and amounts of the rare element iridium that are too high to have come from Earth.

 

All, they argue, point to the explosion 12,900 years ago of an extraterrestrial object up to 5km across.

 

No crater remains, possibly because the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which blanketed thousands of sq km of North America during the last Ice Age, was thick enough to mask the impact.

 

Another possibility is that it exploded in the air.

 

The rocks studied by the researchers have a black layer which, they argue, is the charcoal deposited by wildfires which swept the continent after the explosion.

 

The blast would not only have generated enormous amounts of heat that could have given rise to wildfires, but also brought about a period of climate cooling that lasted 1,000 years - an event known as the Younger Dryas.

 

Professor James Kennett, from the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB), said the explosion could be to blame for the extinction of several large North American mammals at the end of the last Ice Age.

 

"All the elephants, including the mastodon and the mammoth, all the ground sloths, including the giant ground sloth - which, when standing on its hind legs, would have been as big as a mammoth," he told the BBC.

 

"All the horses went out, all the North American camels went out. There were large carnivores like the sabre-toothed cat and an enormous bear called the short-faced bear."

 

Professor Kennett said this could have had an enormous impact on human populations.

 

According to the traditional view, humans crossed from north-east Asia to America at the end of the last Ice Age, across a land bridge which - at the time - connected Siberia to Alaska.

 

The Clovis culture was one of the earliest known cultures in the continent. These proficient hunter-gatherers developed a distinctive thin, fluted spear head known as the Clovis point, which is regarded as one of the most sophisticated stone tools ever developed.

 

Archaeologists have found evidence from the Topper site in South Carolina, US, that Clovis populations here went through a population collapse.

 

But there is no evidence of a similar decline in other parts of the continent. The Clovis culture does vanish from the archaeological record abruptly, but it is replaced by a myriad of different local hunter-gatherer cultures.

 

Jeff Severinghaus, a palaeoclimatologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, told Nature magazine: "Their impact theory shouldn't be dismissed; it deserves further investigation."

 

According to the new idea, the comet would have caused widespread melting of the North American ice sheet. The waters would have poured into the Atlantic, disrupting its currents.

 

This, they say, could have caused the 1,000 year-long Younger Dryas cold spell, which also affected Asia and Europe.

 

The Younger Dryas has been linked by some researchers to changes in the living patterns of people living in the Middle East which led to the beginning of farming.

 

A massive explosion near the Tunguska river, Siberia, in 1908, is also thought to have been caused by a space rock exploding in the atmosphere. It felled 80 million trees over an area of 2,000 sq km.

 

The new theory will be presented and debated at the American Geophysical Union's Joint Meeting in Acapulco, Mexico, this week.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2083785,00.html

Diamonds tell tale of comet that killed off the cavemen

Fireballs set half the planet ablaze, wiping out the mammoth and America's Stone Age hunters

Robin McKie, science editor

Sunday May 20, 2007

The Observer

 

Scientists will outline dramatic evidence this week that suggests a comet exploded over the Earth nearly 13,000 years ago, creating a hail of fireballs that set fire to most of the northern hemisphere.

 

Primitive Stone Age cultures were destroyed and populations of mammoths and other large land animals, such as the mastodon, were wiped out. The blast also caused a major bout of climatic cooling that lasted 1,000 years and seriously disrupted the development of the early human civilisations that were emerging in Europe and Asia.

 

'This comet set off a shock wave that changed Earth profoundly,' said Arizona geophysicist Allen West. 'It was about 2km-3km in diameter and broke up just before impact, setting off a series of explosions, each the equivalent of an atomic bomb blast. The result would have been hell on Earth. Most of the northern hemisphere would have been left on fire.'

 

The theory is to be outlined at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Acapulco, Mexico. A group of US scientists that include West will report that they have found a layer of microscopic diamonds at 26 different sites in Europe, Canada and America. These are the remains of a giant carbon-rich comet that crashed in pieces on our planet 12,900 years ago, they say. The huge pressures and heat triggered by the fragments crashing to Earth turned the comet's carbon into diamond dust. 'The shock waves and the heat would have been tremendous,' said West. 'It would have set fire to animals' fur and to the clothing worn by men and women. The searing heat would have also set fire to the grasslands of the northern hemisphere. Great grazing animals like the mammoth that had survived the original blast would later have died in their thousands from starvation. Only animals, including humans, that had a wide range of food would have survived the aftermath.'

 

The scientists point out that archaeological evidence shows that early Stone Age cultures clearly suffered serious setbacks at this time. In particular, American Stone Age hunters, descendants of the hunter-gatherers who had migrated to the continent from Asia, vanished around this time.

 

These people were some of the fiercest hunters on Earth, men and women who made magnificent stone spearheads which they used to hunt animals including the mammoth. Their disappearance at this time has been a cause of intense debate, with climate change being put forward as a key explanation. Now there is a new idea: the first Americans were killed by a comet.

 

It was not just America that bore the brunt of the comet crash. At this time, the Earth was emerging from the last Ice Age. The climate was slowly warming, though extensive ice fields still covered higher latitudes. The disintegrating comet would have plunged into these ice sheets, causing widespread melting. These waters would have poured into the Atlantic, disrupting its currents, including the Gulf stream. The long-term effect was a 1,000-year cold spell that hit Europe and Asia.

 

The comet theory, backed by observational evidence collected by the team, has excited considerable attention from other researchers, following publication of an outline report of the work in Nature

 

'The magnitude of this discovery is so important,' team member James Kennett, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the journal. 'It explains three of the highest-debated controversies of recent decades.'

 

These are the sudden disappearance of the first Stone Age people of America, the disappearance of mammoths throughout much of Europe and America and the sudden cooling of the planet, an event known as the Younger-Dryas period. Various theories have been put forward to explain these occurrences, but now scientists believe they have found a common cause in a comet crash. However, the idea is still controversial and the theory is bedevilled by problems in obtaining accurate dates for the different events.

 

'We still have a long way to go,' admitted West. 'But we have a great deal of evidence, from many sites, so this is quite a powerful case that we are making.'

 

http://www.norwaypost.no/cgi-bin/norwaypost/imaker?id=79953

Old shoe - even older

 

An old leather shoe discovered in the Jotunheimen Mountains, and first estimated to be around 1000 years old, turns out to be more than 3,000 years old. The shoe was found in an old snowdrift in August last year.

 

- We first believed that the shoe was only 1000 years old, but to our great surprise the analysis of the leather showed it to be 3,400 years old, says Oppland County Archaeologist Espen Finstad to Aftenposten.

 

This means that not only is it Norway's oldest shoe, but also the oldest piece of Norwegian "clothing" discovered so far.

 

The shoe therefore dates back to old bronze age, roughly from 1800 to 1100 years before Christ.

 

In the same area were also found several complete arrows and a spade made from wood.

 

- This tells us that this area was an important hunting ground over a longer period, says Finstad.

 

(NRK/Aftenposten)

 

Rolleiv Solholm

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6671617.stm

Castle's 'lost history' unearthed

 

Archaeologists have discovered traces of ancient remains at Edinburgh Castle during preparation work for the construction of a new visitor centre.

 

Experts said borehole samples revealed debris dating from before the Iron Age, more than 2,000 years ago.

 

Historic Scotland's Peter Yeoman said the finds were "truly invaluable" because they helped to explain the site's "lost history".

 

Edinburgh Castle is one of Scotland's top tourist attractions.

 

Mr Yeoman, a senior archaeologist with the castle's owners Historic Scotland, said that it was certain that the front of the area where the castle now stands was encircled by two massive ditches as long ago as the Iron Age.

 

Inside the ditches are layers of remains including pottery and food debris built up over several centuries.

 

Edinburgh Castle stands high above the city centre on top of an extinct volcanic plug.

 

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=780392007

Discovery of Iron Age ditches adds to history of the Castle

ADRIAN MATHER (amather@edinburghnews.com)

 

SOME of the earliest Iron Age defences at Edinburgh Castle have been unearthed during excavation work for the attraction's new visitor centre.

 

Archaeologists discovered two huge, 2000-year-old ditches underneath the Castle Esplanade, which would once have protected the ancient hill fort on the site.

 

A team of experts drilled a series of small bore holes through the Castle's car park and analysed soil samples from many metres below the ground.

 

Senior archaeologists today described the find as a "major discovery" that would help show how the Castle has developed since being established by Iron Age tribes.

 

It comes just months after the same team discovered the foundations of a 17th-century stone wall, built after the Castle was seized by Oliver Cromwell.

 

Peter Yeoman, senior archaeologist at Historic Scotland, said: "The results from the archaeological boring were really surprising as this technique rarely produces detailed dating evidence. The data is truly invaluable as it adds another piece to the lost history of Edinburgh Castle.

 

"These discoveries will help us to understand how the Castle developed over the years. We had some idea about the ditches before we started the excavations, but now we know exactly how big they were and where they were.

 

"We can now be certain that the front of the Castle was encircled by a pair of massive ditches dating as far back as the Iron Age, 2000 years ago. Each ditch was about 12 metres wide and six metres deep and they were slowly filled in with soil and other debris throughout history.

 

"The boring has discovered that, within these now in-filled ditches, there are layers and layers of fascinating historical remains - such as 12th and 13th-century pottery.

 

"We ended up with samples that covered around 1500 years of history leading up to the 1600s, when the whole facade of the Castle changed into its current format."

 

A special drilling rig was used to recover the samples, which were taken to Headland Archaeology's laboratory in Leith.

 

Headland's environmental archaeologists were then able to recover dateable pottery fragments and food debris.

 

Chris Watkins, head of major projects at Historic Scotland, said: "It is always very exciting when a project such as this leads to the discovery of more information on the history of Edinburgh Castle.

 

"Most of the underground work on the project, including the 26m deep piles to support the new terrace, is now complete and we are progressing with the building of new stonework and the development of the website."

 

Previous archeological excavations at the Castle have found remains dating back as far as the late Bronze Age from around 900BC.

 

THE FACTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=780392007

Last updated: 19-May-07 13:55 BST

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=455696&in_page_id=1965

Trafalgar Square skeleton forces historians to rewrite the story of Roman England

Last updated at 10:37am on 18th May 2007

 

For 1,500 years, this skeleton of a wealthy Roman man was buried beneath Trafalgar Square.

 

Now its discovery is forcing archaeologists to rewrite the history of London.

 

Until the bones were found, along with jewels and other valuables, it was thought that the Romans had abandoned Londinium around AD400 and the city was virtually desolate until the Saxons arrived in the seventh century.

 

This skeleton of a wealthy Roman man was buried beneath Trafalgar Square

 

But the Roman skeleton has been dated to AD410 and it was found surrounded by the graves of rich Saxons.

 

One had been buried with a pot that has been dated to AD500.

 

The finds - made during the £36 million redevelopment of St Martin-in-the-Fields church -prove the Romans remained in the city longer than previously thought and the Saxons arrived sooner.

 

Francis Grew, senior curator at the Museum of London, said: "For the first time we have the beginnings of a link between the Roman city and the Saxon London of the 600s.

 

"Before, we always believed London collapsed into ruins quite quickly after AD400.

 

"What I find really quite moving is this Roman symbolises the end of the ancient world and was around just about long enough to see the beginnings of what would become modern London.

 

"It would have been quite frightening for him because he would have grown up in a world where the Emperor's face was on every coin and Roman officials and soldiers walked the streets.

 

"By the time he died the first Saxons would have probably started arriving from northern Germany, after centuries of no immigration.

 

"Coins would have been replaced by barter. He would have felt quite isolated and disconnected."

 

Other graves found on the site date from AD600 and appear to be Christian, raising the possibility that St Martin-in-the-Fields was a sacred site for longer than had been thought.

 

The skeleton, pot and treasures will be on display at the museum from Thursday until 8 August.

 

http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=499861

Ancient jigsaw is pieced back together after 2,000 years apart

Published on 18/05/2007

By BRIAN TILLEY

 

A TWO THOUSAND year-old jigsaw puzzle has intrigued and delighted archaeologists at Tynedale’s most prolific Roman site.

 

One of the most treasured discoveries at the Vindolanda site near Bardon Mill is a rare fragment of painted glass, depicting gladiators in action.

 

The beautiful drinking vessel was unearthed in 1991 during the excavation of a ditch.

 

The highly decorated shard has intrigued and fascinated thousands of visitors to Vindolanda ever since, and more than one person has wondered what happened to the rest of the cup.

 

Now, against all odds, another substantial fragment of the same cup has just been unearthed.

 

Remarkably, it was found some 45 metres away from where the first piece was found.

 

The two pieces are an exact match and fit together with seamless perfection. The original gladiators are now happily joined by coloured figures depicting comrades, sponsors of the games and a possible referee.

 

Director of excavations Andrew Birley said: “ This is an astounding set of circumstances and my first thoughts were that we now had pieces of two of these rare glass bowls.

 

“The recent piece comes from a firmly stratified and datable level of c. 230-250 AD in what appears at the moment to be the home of a wealthy person.

 

“Part of the broken vessel must have been cleared out and dumped into the fort ditch with other rubbish while our most recent piece remained inside the building.

 

“The perfect fit of the two pieces, thought to have been manufactured and decorated at Cologne in the lower Rhineland, is beyond question and we now have the most comprehensive example of this type of decorated glass to be found from Roman Britain.”

 

The 2007 Vindolanda excavations continue until early September.

 

Visitors can watch archaeologists and volunteers from the UK and beyond uncover more of this fascinating Roman site and enjoy the extensive visitor facilities.

 

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/journallive/thejournal/tm_headline=roman-centurions---at-close-quarters&method=full&objectid=19117020&siteid=50081-name_page.html

Roman centurions - at close quarters

May 17 2007

By Tony Henderson, The Journal

 

Alex Croome of Tyne & Wear Museums in Arbeia's centurion's quarters kitchen

 

Home comforts which made Roman centurions the envy of the squaddies they commanded have been revealed at a fort on Tyneside.

 

A reconstruction of a centurion's living quarters has been completed at Arbeia fort in South Shields.

 

Eight years ago a project began to recreate parts of the fort commander's opulent house at Arbeia - and in contrast, a barrack block housing the troops.

 

The reconstructions were carried out but lack of funding meant that the centurion's quarters at the end of the barracks could not be finished.

 

Now volunteers from Procter and Gamble, the Inland Revenue and trainees at the fort have weighed in to complete the task.

 

The centurion would usually have been in charge of 80 men and his living space reflects that status.

 

"In the barrack eight soldiers had to fit into two rooms but the centurion had the luxury of five rooms," said Alex Croom, keeper of archaeology at the fort.

 

"The centurion is the middle link between the spacious living conditions of the commanding officer and the soldiers in the barracks."

 

While the commander's house had fine wall paintings and the squaddies had plain walls, the centurion's home has red lower walls and a whitewashed upper half.

 

"My favourite room in the centurion's quarters is the kitchen with a toilet in one corner. Having a toilet in the kitchen was common in the Roman world, as it meant they could use waste water from cooking and washing to flush the loo," Alex said.

 

The layout of the centurion's home includes:

 

* A bedroom with child's bed based on an example found at Herculaneum, and a mattress on the floor for a slave.

 

* Kitchen with pottery charcoal brazier for cooking.

 

* Alcove used for display of armour.

 

* Living room with furniture copied from Roman sculpture, including a small dining table with folding legs.

 

* Main bedroom with bedhead decorated with a dolphin, and a shrine in the wall.

 

The barrack block is the only reconstruction in the country to have been built using traditional Roman methods.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6669209.stm

Roman VIP found at burial ground

 

A burial ground found under the A2 in Kent has marked the area as one of the most important sites of Roman Britain.

 

Archaeologists say the burial site, near Gravesend, ranks with those found at the most important Roman cities such as Colchester and St Albans.

 

Three graves were found during a routine dig before work started on a £122m road widening scheme.

 

Archaeologist Tim Allen said one of the bodies, which had been cremated, was clearly of a "very important person".

 

There was known to be a enclosure on the site, near the Roman town of Springhead, but it was believed to be a rural farmstead.

 

"At the bottom of the pit, we came across the metal handles of a wooden board, and later a set of 23 glass counters and two bone dice, suggesting that we had found a gaming board," said Mr Allen.

 

"These finds are rare, and mostly occur in graves, so we carefully took down the other half of the pit, and sure enough, it was full of grave offerings."

 

The remains included half a pig, which would have been food for the afterlife, and a large safety pin brooch.

 

The second burial site contained 15 pots, a bronze jug and another cremated body with a brooch.

 

In the third was a wooden box with a polished bronze mirror and several copper rings.

 

Enough of the skull survived for archaeologists to be confident the body was that of a woman.

 

The relics are on display at Shorne Wood Country Park visitor centre, Gravesend, on Friday and Saturday.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1800843.ece

Builders dig up lost pleasure garden of the ancient Romans

Richard Owen in Rome

 

Mosaics from the fabled Gardens of Lucullus, one of the pioneering influences on gardening, have been brought to light after 2,000 years by archaeologists in Rome.

 

The vast terraced gardens, or Horti, covered what is now the built-up area above the Spanish Steps. The first known attempt in the West to “tame nature” through landscaping, the gardens were laid out around a patrician villa in the middle of the 1st century BC by Lucius Licinius Lucullus, one of Ancient Rome’s most celebrated generals, after he retired in disillusion from war and politics.

 

They became a benchmark for all Roman pleasure gardens, and were taken over and developed by Roman emperors. The 1st-century mosaics decorated the nymphaeum, an artificial grotto with water features. One depicts a corpulent cupid riding a dolphin and another a wolf’s head in green and gold.

 

They were found nine metres (30ft) below street level during renovation work on the Hertzian Library (Biblioteca Hertziana), the German art history institute near the Spanish Steps run by the Max Planck Society.

 

Excavations below the library have also brought to light a marble head of Venus, perhaps a relic of the statues that once adorned the nymphaeum. Maria Antonietta Tomei, of the Rome Superintendency for Archaeology, said when workers began demolishing the interior of the building to modernise it “the architecture of the Ancient Roman garden appeared before our eyes. It seems like a dream.”

 

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, director of the British School at Rome and a leading classical scholar, said Lucullus had invented the concept of the pleasure garden when he quit public life in disgust after his rival Pompey “robbed him of the credit for Rome’s conquests in the East”.

 

The historian Plutarch observed that Lucullus “abandoned public affairs either because he saw that they were out of control and diseased or, some say, because he had had his fill of glory and felt entitled to fall back on a life of ease and luxury”. Ironically, Pompey was himself outmanoeuvred by Julius Caesar in the struggle for power that marked the end of the Roman Republic.

 

Lucullus is said to have been inspired by Persian and Mesopotamian gardens that he saw during his military campaigns in Asia Minor.

 

Plutarch recorded that Lucullus “was the first Roman to lead an an army over the Tigris, taking and burning the royal palaces of Asia in the sight of their kings”, and that he funded his gardens – and his famous library and art collection – from “the spoils of the barbarians”.

 

Lucullus also built luxury villas and gardens with pavilions, belvederes and baths at Tusculum, in the Alban Hills near modern Frascati, and above the Bay of Naples, where he had channels cut to let seawater circulate in his fishpond. He is said to have introduced cherries and apricots to the West.

 

Stefania Trevisan, who is leading the dig, said that excavations were continuing in the hope of finding more remains. After Lucullus’s death the gardens were bought and embellished by the wealthy consul Valerius Asiaticus. The gardens were appropriated later by Messalina, the promiscuous wife of the Emperor Claudius, who forced Valerius Asiaticus to commit suicide. She in turn was executed in the gardens after plotting against her husband. When Claudius was informed while he was dining that Messalina was dead, he was said to have “asked for another glass of wine”.

 

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/530018/

Ancient Wooden Anchor Discovered

 

Newswise — The world's oldest wooden anchor was discovered during excavations in the Turkish port city of Urla, the ancient site of Liman Tepe / the Greek 1st Millennium BCE colony of Klazomenai, by researchers from the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa. The anchor, from the end of the 7th century BC, was found near a submerged construction, imbedded approximately.1.5 meters underground.

 

The cooperative project between the University of Haifa and Ankara University sparked local interest, not only in marine archaeology, but also in the team of Israeli archaeologists. Israeli-Turkish relations have had their ups and downs over the past few years, but the cooperation between the Institute for Marine Studies at the University of Haifa and Ankara University has continually strengthened. In 2000, Prof. Hayat Erkanal of Ankara University invited Prof. Michal Artzy and scholars from the University of Haifa to join them in archaeological excavations in the port of Urla, a port city located near Izmir, with more than 5,000 years of maritime history. Remnants of an ancient port were uncovered during the excavations.

 

The finds revealed that the port, which served the ancient Greek settlement of Klazomenai, sunk following a natural disaster, probably an earthquake, in the 6th century BC. As there is no record of any such event occurring during this period, the actual cause of port's destruction remains a mystery.

 

During the recent excavation season, it became clear that a wooden log that was found wedged into the ground at the bottom of the ancient harbor in 2003 is actually a wooden anchor with a metal-covered crown. The anchor was found wedged into the ground one and a half meters below the surface and was dated from the end of the 7th century BC, which makes it the oldest wooden anchor found to date.

 

"In addition to the damage it caused to the port, the natural disaster that hit the area also destroyed the area of the city that was built along the coast. As soon as we finish uncovering the finds of the harbor we will know more about this period and perhaps we will know what actually caused the disaster," said Prof. Michal Artzy, who leads the University of Haifa team of researchers.

 

The excavations not only revealed interesting archaeological finds. For six years, while excavating the site, the researchers from the University of Haifa trained teams of divers and marine archaeologists from Ankara University, which is now opening a new institute for marine studies. During the years of excavations, the local community welcomed the Israelis with warm hospitality. Fascinated with their guests, the community began to research its own Jewish roots, and two forgotten Jewish cemeteries were recently discovered in the city.

 

The team from Haifa will return for a seventh season of cooperative excavations this summer. The "Haifa House", which was built to house the Israeli staff, with the help of the City of Urla and the Turkish Minister of Culture, is awaiting their arrival.

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/111874.html

'Black Swan' becomes the golden goose

A Tampa-based marine salvage company has recovered a reputed half-billion-dollar haul of coins from a sunken ship.

By MARC KAUFMAN

Washington Post Service

 

A ship that sank as many as 300 years ago in busy waters of the Atlantic has delivered an unprecedented bounty to American treasure hunters: seventeen tons of silver coins and hundreds of gold coins, jewelry and other objects.

 

The value, estimated by a rare coin dealer working with the firm, may be as much as $500 million.

 

The enormous find was revealed Friday by Odyssey Marine Explorations of Tampa, a publicly traded company that finds, explores and salvages shipwrecks in international waters.

 

The company has made major discoveries before, but none nearly so large as the haul from what officials code-named ``Black Swan.''

 

In a release Friday, the company said ``this recovery constitutes the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a historical shipwreck.''

 

The company was reluctant to give details of its find.

 

''Our research suggests that there were a number of Colonial period shipwrecks that were lost in the area where this site is located, so we are being very cautious,'' said John Morris, Odyssey's co-founder and CEO.

 

The company also declined to say what country it might have been from, where the coins might have been minted, or when.

 

Greg Stemm, Odyssey's co-founder, did say that ``the remarkable condition of most of the first 6,000 silver coins conserved has been a pleasant surprise, and the gold coins are almost all dazzling mint-state specimens.''

 

Odyssey showed some of the treasure to rare coin expert Nicholas Bruyer of GovMint.com. In an e-mail Friday, he said ``I've handled coins from many shipwrecks over the last 30 years, and I know of no other shipwreck find comparable to this.''

 

He said he had examined about 100 of the coins and also found them to be in remarkably good condition, adding that some still had their original ``luster.''

 

He said the roughly 500,000 coins could be worth on average $1,000 each, leading to the estimate of $500 million for the entire haul.

 

Odyssey said the ship and its coins and objects were not subject to claims by any nation and so belonged entirely to the company. ''The recovery was in conformity with Salvage Law and the Law of the Sea Convention, beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country,'' the form said.

 

Odyssey also said it planned to return to the shipwreck for further exploration and excavation, and that more coins might be found. The 500,000 already salvaged are in a secure U.S. location, the company said.

 

Last year, Odyssey filed in Tampa federal court for rights to a shipwreck described as lying 40 miles from Lands End in Cornwall, near the English Channel. The legal papers said it was believed to be ''a merchant vessel from the 17th century.'' An Odyssey official deflected attention from that claim Friday, however, saying the firm had a number of claims pending.

 

Commercial shipwreck exploration has been controversial -- both in terms of disputes over ownership and, more commonly now, tension between treasure hunting and marine archaeology. Researchers have often complained that hunters have looted historically rich underwater sites -- making it impossible to learn valuable information about earlier cultures and technologies.

 

''There have been well known cases of shipwrecks having suffered in the pursuit of profit,'' said James Delgado, executive director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, adding: ``We don't know enough about Odyssey and how they've behaved at the site.''

 

On its website, the company said two archaeologists supervised the excavation.

 

Odyssey was founded 13 years ago and already has one major find to its credit. It salvaged more than 50,000 coins and other artifacts with retail value of more than $75 million from the wreck of the SS Republic off Savannah, Ga., in 2003.

 

Several months ago, Odyssey won permission from the Spanish government to search off Gibraltar for the remains of the HMS Sussex, which sank in 1694 as it was leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea during a war against France.

 

That ship, historians believe, was carrying nine tons of gold coins to buy the loyalty of a potential ally.

 

From Mark Horton

the story is going to break tomorrow morning about Odyssey (the guys who have the agreement of the MoD to excavate HMS Sussex) removing what they claim is £500 million (yes) worth of coins from the seabed just off Cornwall. Apparently the site, which is a secret, is around 40 miles of the SW tip of England, and in international waters (but I wonder how close they are to the Scillies?). The ship is a 17th cent. merchantman, and the project has been given the code name black swan, if that is any hint to its identity. Apparently a US judge gave them the salvage rights (I am not sure what jurisdiction a federal judge has over UK sovereign territory, but that another story)

 

Apart from the horrors of this (its makes the little scrap about MD's in Britarch rather small beer), there are a number of reactions:

 

1) We need to mobilise major objections to this sort of thing happening close to our shores

2) It is outrageous that a bunch of Americans can simply come in and loot our cultural heritage and there is nothing we can do about it

3) Territorial rights have long extended beyond 3 miles, or the current 12 miles to include the continental shelf (e.g. fisheries, oil and gas). Clearly this site is within the continental shelf area, and our government need to ensure that heritage rights are protected as well as well as natural resources. Wrecks generating 500 million are surely worth protecting in the national interest whatever the rights and wrongs of treasure hunting.

4) The Government need to sign the UN convention on Underwater Heritage, which includes national jurisdiction over the continental shelf areas, and so would have applied in this case.

5) The UK seems to have been treated as a banana republic, whose heritage can be exploited for private gain.

 

I just hope we all feel outraged about this, and lets hope we can do something to ensure that the coins are not sold, but confiscated and lodged in the British Museum. a vain hope I suspect.

 

Mark

 

http://shipwreck.net/bswfaq.html

1. What can you tell us about the shipwreck code-named the "Black Swan"?

 

The site is in the Atlantic Ocean in an area in which a number of Colonial shipwrecks were lost. We are not certain of the nationality, size or age of the site at this point. We have some interesting evidence that tends to point to a specific shipwreck, but we do not intend to discuss this publicly until we have had a chance to review contemporary records and conduct extensive analysis of the artifacts and coins that have been recovered to date.

 

For site security and legal reasons, we are not prepared to give the location, depth or any other information about the site, or even which ship or ROV system was used in the recovery.

 

The recovery was in conformity with Salvage Law and the Law of the Sea Convention, beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country. We do not believe that the recovery is subject to sovereign immunity by any nation pursuant to the Law of the Sea Convention.

 

If we are able to confirm that some other entity has a legitimate legal claim to this shipwreck when - and if - the identity is confirmed, we intend to provide legal notice to any potential claimant. Even if another entity is able to prove that it has an ownership interest in the shipwreck and/or cargo (which we do not consider likely based on our evidence to date) and that they had not legally abandoned the shipwreck (also unlikely), Odyssey would apply for a salvage award from the Admiralty Court. In cases such as this, salvors are typically awarded approximately 90% of the recovery.

 

2. What can you tell about the coins that were recovered?

 

The silver coins that were recovered weighed over 17 tons, and the preliminary count puts the number at over 500,000 coins. We have already conserved about 6,000 of them and we are very pleased with the condition of the coins. They represent a wide variety of dates, origins and varieties which we believe will make many of the coins attractive to both numismatists and collectors alike.

 

Hundreds of gold coins were also recovered from the site. Most of these coins are in mint state condition and also reflect a wide variety of years and mints.

 

Additional worked gold and other artifacts were also recovered, and we are studying them for additional clues which might lead to the ultimate identification of the site.

 

3. Are there more coins on the site?

 

It is possible that we will find additional coins during the next phase of the excavation.

 

4. Will Odyssey be returning to the "Black Swan" site?

 

At this point, we are planning a major expedition back to the site that may correlate with an announcement of the identity of the shipwreck (if we are able to prove it to our satisfaction.) We anticipate that a significant world-wide media event will be associated with this return to the site.

 

5. Are there still artifacts remaining on the site?

 

Yes, there are still a large number of artifacts on the site. We are holding off further excavation until we can confirm the identity of the shipwreck based on the artifacts and evidence recovered to date. At that point, we will develop the archaeological plan for additional excavation and recovery.

 

6. How were the coins and artifacts shipped?

 

They were shipped to the United States. We are not discussing when they were shipped, the method by which they were shipped, nor the locations from which they were shipped or where they arrived. We are also - for obvious security reasons - not disclosing where they are now.

 

7. Why all the secrecy about this recovery?

 

We have been saying for quite a while now that in most cases we may not announce shipwreck finds until after recovery and assertion of legal claims. There are political, legal and security reasons for taking this approach, and they vary from site to site.

 

In our ongoing effort to bring credibility to commercial deep ocean archaeology, we think that is best to reduce speculation about the identity and value of shipwrecks. One way to do this is to announce the identity of shipwrecks AFTER we prove to our satisfaction which ship they are. In order to reduce speculation about the values, we think that where possible, waiting until after a collection is recovered to provide an estimate of the projected retail values will provide a more accurate assessment.

 

There will be shipwrecks like the HMS Sussex, which require relatively public negotiations with sovereign governments, but the public nature of these projects can lead to wild media speculation, as well as Internet blogging and message board crazy conjecture with little basis in reality. Our goal is to provide the most accurate information possible to the public about our finds, and in many cases, that will happen after the completion of recovery operations.

 

The majority of our shipwreck projects in the future will follow the "Black Swan" model, where our goal will be to release minimal information about the project until after the fact, and even then to focus on releasing facts, not conjecture.

 

8. What is the potential retail value of the coins that have been recovered?

 

We have numismatists examining the coins in order to help us get our arms around this collection. Obviously no one has ever seen a shipwreck collection of this magnitude before. The preliminary opinion from one of the numismatists who has had the most experience with sales of coins from the SS Republic - and has already inspected some these coins firsthand - is that the condition and broad range of coins on this site suggests a very wide range of retail values. He has recommended offering the coins at retail prices ranging from a few hundred dollars up to $4,000 per silver coin. The gold coins are estimated to bring substantially higher numbers. Of course, this is preliminary suggested retail pricing, and the actual sales price of coins may be different from this range. (Note: Retail prices would not include sales and marketing costs, so the entire retail sales amount would typically not accrue directly to Odyssey).

 

9. How long will it take to conserve the entire collection and what is involved with the process?

 

Again, no one has ever conserved and documented a collection of this size before, so we are exploring our options now. Obviously our experience with the 50,000 coins of the SS Republic was very useful - and the lessons learned on that project are already proving valuable.

 

We have already conserved about 6,000 coins from the site, testing various methods of conservation in order to determine the best process. Some of these were quite time-consuming, but have produced fantastic results that warrant the effort.

 

As with the SS Republic collection, each coin will be individually conserved, documented, photographed, graded and certified. It will be a massive undertaking, but obviously necessary if we are going to do this right.

 

10. When will the coins be available for sale?

 

The timing of the first coin sales will depend on a number of factors, including the conservation process, legal issues, perfection of title, identification of the shipwreck and our scheduled release of media about the shipwreck.

 

We have set up a place on our website, www.shipwreck.net, where people interested in reserving coins from the shipwreck for their collections can register for notification of the process and marketing calendar.

 

11. Will you sell all the coins?

 

Odyssey has a policy of keeping a permanent collection sample of the different varieties of coins that are sold for study and display purposes.

 

12. How will such a huge quantity of coins affect the marketplace?

 

It is a common misconception that a large number of coins coming into the marketplace will depress retail values. Even though it is counter-intuitive, experience suggests otherwise. In cases where large hoards of coins have come available, collector interest has often actually pushed values up.

 

Prior to Mel Fisher's discovery of the Atocha, the 1622 Spanish shipwreck lost off the Florida Keys, common Spanish "Pieces of Eight" would often sell for less than a hundred dollars.

 

In spite of bringing over 150,000 coins into the marketplace, Fisher's organization successfully retailed these coins at prices ranging from $500 to $1,500 based on the added collector interest generated by the publicity surrounding the find.

 

When the LaVere Redfield estate hoard of 400,000 U.S. silver dollars dating from 1878 to 1935 came into the market, it was one of the largest quantities ever released outside the U.S. Treasury. By marketing the coins directly to the public, over three years Paramount International Coin Corp. successfully sold them at the prevailing retail prices with no disruption to market values.

 

In 1983 Continental - Illinois Bank of Chicago sold off from its vault 1.5 million U.S. silver dollars dating from 1878-1904. The coins were distributed to a carefully chosen network of retail dealers, who sold the coins directly to the public. There was no decline in the market values of these coins during the two years they were dispersed into the market. In fact, wholesale prices actually increased between 1983 and 1985.

 

The U.S. Mint estimates that there are about 130 million coin collectors in America. By providing a way for the public to participate in major finds, and generating excitement about a shipwreck, we believe that large numbers of coins can be widely distributed with no negative impact on market values.

 

13. What about archaeology? Does Odyssey intend to excavate this site in an archaeologically-sound manner?

 

Yes. The "Black Swan" site was the subject of an extensive pre-disturbance survey prior to any excavation. Recovery of the artifacts recovered to date has been accomplished under the supervision of two archaeologists and has followed rigorous archaeological protocols.

 

14. What does the "Black Swan" shipwreck mean for the Company?

 

Pioneering a new industry is daunting. One challenge is convincing the world that one success was not a fluke. The SS Republic shipwreck has already produced over $33 million in revenues for us during the first three years of sales. We still have well over half the inventory remaining, so this has been a great success for the Company. A second major shipwreck recovery, especially one of this magnitude, suggests that Odyssey's business plan is more than just a dream.

 

Odyssey is fortunate to have support from some of the largest investment funds in the world, including some who have shown that they are interested in Odyssey as a long term investment, not a short term trading opportunity. This successful recovery appears to justify their investment strategy and belief in the Company's management and business plan.

 

15. Who are Odyssey's media partners?

 

Odyssey is currently in discussions with media partners for film, television, book and other ancillary rights. We anticipate that the "Black Swan" will prove to be one of the most widely publicized shipwrecks in history, and we are selecting media partners that can contribute to telling the story of this amazing project, and who match Odyssey's own branding standards.

 

16. Is it possible for you to conduct search or recovery operations with ships other than those owned by the Company?

 

The Odyssey Explorer is our primary recovery ship, but we own a second ship that conducts primarily search operations. In addition, the Company from time to time may charter additional ships for augmenting search or recovery activities. The Company has a complete additional search system, and two complete additional ROV systems which can be used on other ships of opportunity. For security reasons, we may not disclose activities undertaken by charter ships, nor the projects they are working on.

 

17. What does the future hold in store for Odyssey?

 

Odyssey is awaiting the appointment of two Spanish archaeologists prior to resuming operations on the Sussex project.

 

In addition, Odyssey has several additional projects in various stages of completion, at least three of which could come to fruition during 2007.

 

While it seems unusual that there could be three years in a row with no announcements of major finds, then the possibility of multiple recoveries in one year, it is important to remember that during those three years, we completed thousands of square miles of searches, and have inspected hundreds of targets...with many more to inspect. You never know when the next target is the one that you are looking for.

 

18. Why is the shipwreck code-named "Black Swan?"

 

A "Black Swan" as defined by author Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book "The Black Swan" is a highly consequential but apparently unpredictable event. While its timing - or even possibility of its existence - cannot easily be forecast, a "Black Swan" event is often explained after the fact by pundits as though it should have been predictable.

 

At Odyssey we have always run our business with an eye continually scanning the horizon for "Black Swans" of possible positive consequence, while hedging against the negative ones. We are always searching for asymmetries where favorable consequences are more likely than unfavorable ones, and planning for the probability that unpredictable events will affect our business. Our code name selection for this project is predicated on the concept that this operation exemplifies a "Black Swan" event to the public, even though it was actually anticipated in Odyssey's business plan.

 

We hope for many more like it - and are planning appropriately.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/20/treasure.ship.ap/index.html

Theft probe into $500M treasure ship

 

Story Highlights

• Report: Spain launches criminal probe over $500 million find in shipwreck

• Culture Ministry says it is "suspicious" about the discovery

• Court records show coins might be from a 400-year-old ship found off England

 

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Authorities in Spain are looking into whether a U.S. company can be charged with stealing Spanish heritage for excavating colonial-era treasure from a sunken British warship.

 

Odyssey Marine Exploration said Friday it had discovered the ship -- along with gold and silver coins worth an estimated US$500 million -- somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The treasure-hunting company would not say exactly where the ship was, citing security concerns, but said the site was outside any country's territorial waters.

 

Spain's Culture Ministry said it thought the statement was "suspicious," after Odyssey had sought permission to explore Spanish waters for the wreck of a British ship, according to the national news agency Efe.

 

Spain granted the company permission in January to search for the HMS Sussex, which sank in a 1694 storm off Gibraltar while leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for war against France.

 

That permission was only for exploration, however, and did not extend to extraction, the ministry said, according to Efe. Odyssey had previously been searching off the Spanish coast, but suspended operations there in 2005 after complaints from the Spanish government.

 

A chartered cargo jet recently landed in the U.S. to unload plastic containers packed with 500,000 coins -- expected to fetch an average of US$1,000 each from collectors and investors.

 

The Spanish Civil Guard, on request from the government, is investigating whether the company could be charged with theft of Spanish heritage if the haul came from a ship found in Spanish waters, Efe reported. Calls to the ministry on Sunday went unanswered.

 

Odyssey, based in Tampa, Florida, said it was attempting to recover the HMS Sussex under a deal with the British government -- the first such public-private arrangement for an archaeological excavation of a sovereign warship.

 

Historians believe the 157-foot (48-meter) warship was carrying 9 tons of gold coins to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally in southeastern France.

 

Odyssey had said it believed those coins also could fetch more than US$500 million.

 

Under the agreement with Britain, Odyssey would share any finds with the British government. The company would keep 80 percent of the first US$45 million reaped, and about 50 percent of proceeds thereafter.

 

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


 

http://217.204.41.132/cgi/NGoto/2/206587957?2760

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Authorities in Spain are looking into whether a U.S. company can be charged with stealing Spanish heritage for excavating colonial-era treasure from a sunken British warship.

 

Odyssey Marine Exploration said Friday it had discovered the ship -- along with gold and silver coins worth an estimated US$500 million -- somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The treasure-hunting company would not say exactly where the ship was, citing security concerns, but said the site was outside any country's territorial waters.

 

Spain's Culture Ministry said it thought the statement was "suspicious," after Odyssey had sought permission to explore Spanish waters for the wreck of a British ship, according to the national news agency Efe.

 

Spain granted the company permission in January to search for the HMS Sussex, which sank in a 1694 storm off Gibraltar while leading a British fleet into the Mediterranean Sea for war against France.

 

That permission was only for exploration, however, and did not extend to extraction, the ministry said, according to Efe. Odyssey had previously been searching off the Spanish coast, but suspended operations there in 2005 after complaints from the Spanish government.

 

A chartered cargo jet recently landed in the U.S. to unload plastic containers packed with 500,000 coins -- expected to fetch an average of US$1,000 each from collectors and investors.

 

The Spanish Civil Guard, on request from the government, is investigating whether the company could be charged with theft of Spanish heritage if the haul came from a ship found in Spanish waters, Efe reported. Calls to the ministry on Sunday went unanswered.

 

Odyssey, based in Tampa, Florida, said it was attempting to recover the HMS Sussex under a deal with the British government -- the first such public-private arrangement for an archaeological excavation of a sovereign warship.

 

Historians believe the 157-foot (48-meter) warship was carrying 9 tons of gold coins to buy the loyalty of the Duke of Savoy, a potential ally in southeastern France.

 

Odyssey had said it believed those coins also could fetch more than US$500 million.

 

Under the agreement with Britain, Odyssey would share any finds with the British government. The company would keep 80 percent of the first US$45 million reaped, and about 50 percent of proceeds thereafter.

 

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.