Quote: I watch shipwreck finds on one of the History channels. Hopefully they captured this on camera for us to see.
Odyssey's exploration and salvage missions are packaged for television as the show "Treasure Quest" on Discovery. These finds will no doubt feature in several new episodes.
Quote: Really makes you wonder how many coins you could find in the Med with all the old Roman and Greek ships that sunk there
Odyssey's finds are almost always as a result of searches for specific ships that they know from the records carried valuable cargoes. We have no records of which ancient ships sank in the Mediterranean, nor of where they went down, nor of what each ship was carrying when it went down. Just discovering an ancient wreck only happens by chance. Searching ancient ships for valuables would be much more hit-and-miss, mostly "miss". Complicating this is the lack of co-operation Odyssey would get from Mediterranean countries, since almost all ancient shipwrecks would have gone down close to the coasts and therefore within territorial waters.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Quote: Odyssey's finds are almost always as a result of searches for specific ships that they know from the records carried valuable cargoes. We have no records of which ancient ships sank in the Mediterranean, nor of where they went down, nor of what each ship was carrying when it went down. Just discovering an ancient wreck only happens by chance. Searching ancient ships for valuables would be much more hit-and-miss, mostly "miss". Complicating this is the lack of co-operation Odyssey would get from Mediterranean countries, since almost all ancient shipwrecks would have gone down close to the coasts and therefore within territorial waters.
Very true the countries, well the northern africa ones at least, would be less than helpful for sure.
And there would be some hit or miss aspect to it but 1000s and 1000s of ships went down at that time id imagine most had something of value.
Whether or not it would be a profitable operation is another story. For all we know to much time has past and theyre all buried down there now. Still fun to think about what could be found. Maybe in the future better technology will allow simple scans of the floor to find them. I know we have something close right now but its not that great
Quote: Very true the countries, well the northern africa ones at least, would be less than helpful for sure.
Actually, I was thinking more of the European and Middle Eastern ones. Odyssey has had legal troubles with Spain, disputes with France, and all of the countries further east than France are highly protectionist of their underwater heritage and unlikely to give an archaeology-for-profit group like Odyssey the time of day. I think Gibraltar is their only friendly port in the Mediterranean.
Quote: And there would be some hit or miss aspect to it but 1000s and 1000s of ships went down at that time id imagine most had something of value.
True, but most of the things valuable in trade back then, while not "perishable" in the day-to-day sense, would not survive 2000 years under salt water. In open ocean the wood of the ships themselves does not survive at all; ancient shipwrecks are typically identifiable only by a ship-shaped pile of amphorae - large pottery storage jars in which things like olive oil, wine and grains were transported.
I'm not sure of the shipping practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans, but as I understand it, very little money would have been routinely carried on board ships, because of the inherent risk of loss to storms and pirates. Traders typically tried to use up most of the money they made on an outbound trade voyage by buying goods for the return voyage. I would have assumed that a better prospect for coins would have been a military ship carrying tribute or army pay, but since they wouldn't have a cargo hold full of amphorae, very little sign of military shipwrecks would still survive on the ocean floor today.
The Black Sea is a special case, with its anoxic environment helping preserve the ancient wood; this is why much has been made in recent years of the discoveries of ancient shipwrecks there.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Quote: Actually, I was thinking more of the European and Middle Eastern ones. Odyssey has had legal troubles with Spain, disputes with France, and all of the countries further east than France are highly protectionist of their underwater heritage and unlikely to give an archaeology-for-profit group like Odyssey the time of day. I think Gibraltar is their only friendly port in the Mediterranean.
Yea wasnt even thinking of them as I see them as little to no threat to anything aside from Greece ruining the worlds economy lol.
Quote: I would have assumed that a better prospect for coins would have been a military ship carrying tribute or army pay,
Thats exactly what I had in mind. There has to be numerous amounts of those down there especially during the height of the Roman empire with all the tributes and wealth they had.
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Posted 07/18/2012 4:41 pm
