Anchor stock weight

Tuesday 30.8.2016

Today we had two airlifts working in the bow trench. Jouni was working close to the keel, and I was excavating the lead weight for the main anchor stock. Nick tried to stay in between us and above the sediment cloud, and collect all loose finds that we would stick up from the sediment cloud for him to bag. He had two bags, black and white, with different loose finds number. Work was very difficult, because the airlifts had really been set up to work in midship trenches A and B. They barely reached our excavation sites of today.

Christos had build an inverted U-shape sandbag wall around our trench during the first dive of today, so that we would swim around the wall and lie on top of the sandbags when excavating in the middle of that "U". Good plan, but the airlift hoses were too short today. They just would not reach around to that sandbag wall.

I found two sherds, but when I raised my hand for Nick to bag it, he was not there. Finally I rested the sherd on top of a sand bag in front of me, and picked it up later on for Nick to bag properly.

In 2300 years ago some anchor stocks were carved hollow, and then lead weight was cast in there. Odysseus probably had an anchor like this in his ship! When Mazotos ship sunk, the anchor landed on the sea bottom and was exposed. The wood around the lead then disintegrated and only the lead weight was left behind.

After some 10 minutes of airlift work the lead weight was located and I was able to pretty much make it completely visible. Even the original tag was there, which confirmed that today's excavation target was reached. The tag id for metal finds begins with an "M", when pottery find tags begin with a "P".

I never really saw the weight completely, because most of the time I was in sediment cloud and just brushed sediment from the weight and around it towards the airlift head. And finally, when the 20 minute bell rang, I was busy returning the airlift hose into its own place at the bottom of the vertical airlift shaft and remembering to close the valve. We have allocated about one minute for that.

The lead weight had been found in earlier excavation, and then covered with sand. So, we have finally reached the point where the earlier excavation ended, and can now proceed to new adventures. For example, we could try to locate the other lead weight for this anchor. We just do not know which side it is in, and it will be under lots of sediment to excavate. Or, we could try to see what is underneath it, but that might be lots of excavation to do, unless we want to dig a hole there.

This was so far the high point of my excavation. I had followed Mark's advice and left my right hand bare, so that I could also feel the texture that I was brushing. It felt surprisingly good just to touch that piece of lead. It was cast over 2300 years ago by some unknown anchor maker. It may sound funny, but we all get our kicks in different ways.

In the evening we had three talks. Eleni Loizides is the conservator for Department of Antiques in Cyprus. She gave us nice presentation on how sites should be protected in situ, and then how different types of finds can be conserved. We learned about different decay mechanisms and factors affecting the decay, including biological and human factors. For an excavated wreck site you need 60cm of sand to protect the excavated wood from the elements. No wonder we have been digging that sand away for a week now! Waterlogged wood should normally be impregnated with 100% PEG (polyethylen glycol), but because that may take time, they now often use a short cut by achieving only 45% PEG, and the freeze dry the remaining water away. Yes, it does require quite large freezers.

Irene Katsouri gave a presentation on how they are making a complete 3D-model of all the amphorae in the Mazotos wreck. It is not supposed to be exact, but it is trying to give exact original location and position of all amphoras. The idea is that once (many years from now) all pottery has been removed from the wreck (and practically destroying the wreck in the process), you have retained all salient amphora information. For example, you can still make conclusions based on original amphora positions. Without a 3D-model this type of information would be very hard to convey.

Finally Dimitrios Skarlatos presented the 2.7M€ three year iMareCurture EU-funded project, where his team is one of the 11 partners. The project will study how under water tablets could be used by underwater archaeology, or how advanced virtual reality could be used in museums to raise public awareness in maritime cultural heritage.

Dimitrios giving the very last lesson in Fieldschool 2016 

Three presentations took so long, that Stella did not even have time to tell us what we will be doing tomorrow at the wreck site. Or then she has not decided yet. We will probably at least continue to excavate the lead weight and the sediment layer around it. We will find out in tomorrow morning diver's briefing.

There will be no more lessons. We students will make our presentations on each trench tomorrow and Thursday evening, and then present them on Friday.