Mapping wrecks is now done with high-resolution sonar at any depth. Here, as part of an ongoing survey of wrecks from the World W0r II Battle ofthe Atlantic by NOAAs Office ofNational Marine Sanctuaries and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the German submarine U-352 is mapped and compared with historic p lans.
century are boundless. Technology enables work to take place in the deepest depths, and to an exacting standard. As well, the "frontier" has proven not only to be deep waters, but under parking lots and buildings. A number of ancient and historic waterfronts and harbors now lie beneath land fi ll. The largest number of substantially well-preserved wooden shipwrecks has been found , sealed in mud, in cities like London, Pisa, Stockholm, Marseille, New York, and San Francisco. The discovery of the ship beneath the World Trade Center site in New York is a recent example. Another example is the several years of excavation in Istanbul for the new railway station at Yenikapi. More than thirty well-preserved wrecks dating from 700 AD to 1200 AD emerged from the mud along with harbor walls, with spilled ancient cargoes and amphorae still sealed inside the holds of some ships. But the greatest frontier remains the limits of our imagination and the realization that resting beneath the waters of this planet is the greatest museum of human history. Below the surface is the story of how we used the oceans, lakes, and rivers as more than sources of food, but as highways to cross to colonize, to wage wars, to trade, and to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. It is the story of how a changing planet and rising seas drowned the
world of the last great ice age, immersing ancient settlements and the bones of our ancestors along the coastlines of the world . Our knowledge of the world of 20,000 to 10,000 years ago can be greatly enhanced by a push to conduct prehistoric archaeology on the continental shelf. More than half of Europe as it was then is now underwater, and the shallow seas off the Americas, like those of Europe and Asia, have yielded not only mammoth bones, but stone tools lefr by ancient hunters alongside now drowned campfires. The next decades will make the tasks easier and yield greater results. When archaeology commenced underwater, archaeologists despaired of finding out much from the contents of amphorae and other clay jars, save sludge and olive pits. We now have the ability to extract DNA, even from seemingly empty jars from the bottom of the sea. That science has opened up new evidence of ancient trade in wine and grains, olives and fish from the Bronze Age through the Renaissance, and joins other tantalizing clues about the creation of "global" trade long before the Industrial Age. That means we can extract DNA from mud-sealed ancient sites and from ice age burials beneath the sea when we find them. We have the tools, and we have the means to make exploration and science relevant and exciting by bringing the public along. We also can be patient and wait not just for funding and support, but for new advances. Very few shipwrecks are filled with riches , despite the popular view that all that lies below is a pathway to fame and fort une. The real treasure is knowledge, and the realization that this remains a frontier full of wonder, excitement and the potential to truly discover. The oceans cover 73 percent of the globe, and yet we've only explored 5 percent of their depths. When we quest into those depths, we wi ll learn more about deep"sea geology, oceanography and biology. We will solve mysteries, rewrite the history books, and add to our understanding not only of our ancestors, but also be reminded of how important the sea and the waters of this planet have and continue to be at the heart of our survival. ,!,
Shipwrecks have been found in a wide variety of environments, requiring an extraordinary amount of versatility on the part ofarchaeologists in their methodology. (above) In 2010, construction crews at the World Trade Center site in New York discovered the remains ofa Revolutionary W0r-era ship in the middle ofdowntown Manhattan.
Dr. James P. Delgado is the Director of Maritime Heritage in NOAA '.r Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. As a nautical archaeologist, he has led or participated in more than a hundred shipwreck projects for the last four decades. He is the author of more than thirty books, most ofthem on maritime subjects.
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