ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS DISCOVERED AT DEPTHS OF BLACK SEA'S DEAD ZONE PERFECTLY PRESERVED AFTER THOUSANDS

ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS DISCOVERED AT DEPTHS OF BLACK SEA'S DEAD ZONE PERFECTLY PRESERVED AFTER THOUSANDS OF YEARS
BY DAMIEN SHARKOV ON 9/20/17 AT 2:34 PM

Dozens of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman ships strewn across the bottom of the Black Sea have been spotted by researchers in what they are calling “one of the largest maritime archaeological projects ever staged.”

The Black Sea Maritime Project (MAP)—a two-year investigation of Bulgaria’s Black Sea waters—involved local and international experts who found 60 previously lost shipwrecks spanning 2,500 years in the history of a coastline that has been port to many of Europe’s major empires.

The composition of the Black Sea makes it a perfect environment for preserving relics because its anoxic layer prevents the sort of damage that oxygenated water causes to wood, metals and other materials. Bulgaria’s location, and the history of its coastline even before the country’s formation in Medieval times, also meant scientists were likely to find fallow vessels from historic Mediterranean powers.

Researchers went as deep as 1,800 metres (5,900 feet), and have been scouring the depths off Bulgaria’s coastline since 2015 for the myriad historic treasures likely there.

More:
http://www.newsweek.com/ancient-shipwrecks-discovered-depths-black-seas-dead-zone-perfectly-preserved-668112?piano_t=1