A research team made up of British and Bulgarian scientists from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeological Project (MAP) announced in October their discovery of the oldest intact shipwreck ever discovered. The ship, located off Bulgaria’s coast, is a Greek vessel some 2,400 years old, according to the scientists.
The ship, dated to around 400 BC, is one of the best-preserved finds among many being surveyed by MAP, because of the special characteristics of the Black Sea. This body of water is considered to be one of the world’s finest underwater laboratories owing to the anoxic (un-oxygenated) layer which preserves artifacts better than any other marine environment.
For those unfamiliar, the Black Sea MAP project is a collaboration between the University of Southampton in Britain and the Bulgarian Centre for Underwater Archaeology, an independent institute under the Ministry of Culture, as well as National Archaeological Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The ongoing mission of MAP is to better understand the submerged cultural heritage of Bulgaria and the special nature of the prehistoric and historic environmental record there. The end result, according to MAP, will be a better knowledge of human activity in this region and beyond.
The project, running for a fourth consecutive year from the Norwegian ship Havila Subsea and its purpose is to remotely investigate the seabed with the use of sonar and deep-sea diving ROVs (remotely operated vehicles).