maritimearchaeology

We sacrifice an intern to appease Poseidon at the start of expedition. Last time I checked, my DAN insurance included pirates as a pre-existing condition.

Good question! The only ancient mention of Atlantis comes from Plato's dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. People treated it as a parable for the ideal state (and why enemies shouldn't underestimate Athens) until the 19th century when the story took on a new life with fantastic (and fake) tales of its discovery. Was there a real Atlantis? No. But there are hundreds of sunken cities and a few are good candidates for having inspired Plato to write the Atlantis story. Pavlopetri in Laconia (homeland of Sparta) Greece is the oldest sunken city in the world. It dates from the Late Neolithic (stone age) through the Mycenaean period (the war between Greece with Troy) and its buildings would have been sticking out of the water and eroding by 348 BC when Plato wrote the dialogues. Check out this documentary on Pavlopetri if you want more info! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015yh6f Helike is another candidate, it was located in the Peloponnese and sunk by a giant tsunami during Plato's lifetime.

Job security. We're going to need more underwater archaeologists.

Super common! And there are going to be a lot more real soon with global warming :) There are several forms of sea level change and cities have been caught up in all of them. Some cities rise, some sink. There are a lot of myths about sunken cities though- most are located in the 3-10 ft range. Not very deep. Cities subside very slowly (less than a mm per year) and even catastrophic subsidence caused by tsunamis and liquefaction only drop cities a few feet. The deepest known city structure is Durres in Albania, which has harborworks around 40ft. It is so deep due to building on sand, a series of massive earthquakes, and most of these harbor structures were built below the water level to begin with. There are deeper Stone Age settlements, such as in the North Sea where remains around found down to around 90-120 ft. However, anyone that says there are cities deeper than that doesn't have a grasp of geology or archaeology! Which sunken cities are the most interesting? My vote would go for Apollonia and Alexandria in North Africa. These were powerful cities and their sinking into the sea has preserved artifacts that normally would be salvaged and reused by later civilizations. Current research is recording the remains of the lighthouse at Alexandria- the results of which I am sure will be spectacular.

We encounter all kinds of marine life- but there is little to worry about. Sharks are very common around modern shipwrecks, but they are like curious dogs. They want to know what you are doing, but never attack. Same with alligators in the southern US, they just watch you from a distance and keep away. Giant squids are only found in really deep water, so to my knowledge no maritime archaeologist has encountered one (or we never heard from them again!). Marine life either stays away or is curious with most attacks are being caused by humans startling or cornering them, such as accidentally poking eels. We see tons of cool marine life, but its nothing to worry about :)

Most people say they didnt realize underwater archaeology was an option for a job!