UNDERWATER ARCHEOLOGY — BASS 471 



and cooking pots, probably the best-dated collection of pottery from 

 that century. A set of silver-inlaid bronze weights, a whetstone and 

 a stone mortar show how little the belongings of a sea merchant had 

 changed in nearly two millennia. Thirteen terra cotta lamps, in a 

 style often dated two centuries earlier, now provide a fixed date for 

 others of their type. A censer and cross in bronze and a caldron and 

 tray in copper also came to light. Two bronze steelyards for weigh- 

 ing cargo were found with chains and hooks in perfect condition. 

 The bar of the larger was decorated at its ends with bronze animal 

 heads, and its counterweight was a lead-filled bronze bust of Athena. 

 A Greek inscription on this steelyard gives us the name of its owner : 

 George Senior Sea Captain. A small glass medallion, with a cruci- 

 form monogram of the name Theodore, suggests the name of a second 

 member of the crew. 



All of these finds could have been turned up quickly by any diver, 

 but much information would have been lost. The wood of the hull 

 and scattered traces of wood from the rigging are now pinned in 

 place on the packed sand of the seabed with thousands of sharpened 

 bicycle spokes. A restoration, based on plans and sections of these 

 pieces, will give the first information regarding the details of 

 Byzantine ship construction. Because the positions of the fallen roof 

 tiles had been plotted to the centimeter, and the angle at which the 

 keel lies had been measured, it will even be possible to estimate the 

 height and position of the cabin by measuring the distance between 

 the tiles and the keel ; the tiles themselves will give us the size of the 

 cabin. All of the iron nails and spikes have long since disappeared, 

 but iron-oxide shells remain; plaster casts taken of the hollow 

 interiors, when the shells are sawed in half, reproduce perfectly the 

 original shapes and sizes of the missing iron pieces. 



Such work is slow and laborious, but well worth the effort. Almost 

 any object made by ancient man was likely to have been transported 

 by sea. Even the architectural members of temples and churches 

 have been found as cargo on sunken ships. Seldom are archeologists 

 offered material in such perfectly dated contexts on land, and seldom 

 has the material been so well preserv^ed against the destruction of men 

 themselves. It is hoped that patience and care will be used in bring- 

 ing these findings to light. 



