462 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



the material as it lay on the seabed. That two ships could fall in 

 the same spot is not at all improbable. On the treacherous reef 

 at Yassi Island, near ancient Halicarnassus in western Turkey, wreck 

 is piled upon wreck, and, nearby, two marvelously preserved wrecks 

 lie within 75 feet of each other. Methods of making accurate plans 

 and sections vmder water became the pressing need. 



With the development of various sounding devices, metal de- 

 tectors, and small, inexpensive submarines, there can be no doubt 

 that wrecks of all periods of antiquity will be discovered and ex- 

 cavated in the Mediterranean. Neolithic and Early Bronze Age ships 

 may settle forever the question of early migration routes. If Middle 

 Bronze x\ge peoples came to Greece by sea, we should find ships carry- 

 ing the typical grey "Minyan" pottery so closely associated with 

 them. One or two Iron Age ships may solve the problem of the 

 ivory trade of that period, or answer the puzzle of whence came the 

 bronze griffin heads found from Turkey to the Etruscan tombs of 

 Italy. And, if precise methods of excavation are followed, we will 

 learn exactly how triremes were rowed. 



The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in 1960 

 undertook a program to develop the means of recording and preserving 

 the data from such wrecks. The first step in the program was to 

 staff the Museum's marine expeditions with the proper personnel; 

 it was realized at once that weekend skindivers and helmeted sponge- 

 divers, who had done so much of the previous work, had no more 

 place in such operations than they would have on land digs. The 

 present staff consists of archeologists and archeology students, drafts- 

 men, photographers, an architect, a marine biologist, and a medical 

 doctor, all of whom dive and most of whom learned to dive specifically 

 for underwater archeology. Rounding out the staff are a number of 

 carefully selected experienced divers and mechanics. Such a staff 

 must of necessity be larger than most found on land for its members 

 do the actual digging and cleaning. On land one archeologist may 

 direct a vast crew of skilled and unskilled laborers. Underwater, 

 however, each worker must be able to supervise himself and make 

 sudden decisions that may radically affect the interpretation of the 

 finds. 



The areas chosen for study, along the coasts of Lycia and Caria 

 in southwest Turkey, were charted by Peter Throckmorton. Gath- 

 ering his leads while working and diving with Turkish sponge 

 divers, Mr. Throckmorton was able to locate about 30 wrecks cover- 

 ing a span of over two millennia. The first of these wrecks to be 

 excavated was dated to the Late Bronze Age by a study of the finds 

 raised upon its discovery. It lay in 90 feet of water just off Cape 

 Gelidonya. 



