Too Deep to Touch
Archaeologists and businessmen may join together in a new project to discover more about the ancient Phoenicians - or rather, about their ships. We know quite a bit about the history of the Phoenicians, their extensive empire, their reputation as skillful if slightly devious traders, their language and their religion. The one thing we do not know about is their ships, the foundation of their empire.
There are one or two graffiti that show Phoenician ships, but these leave us with rather more questions than answers. The detailed carvings and paintings which tell us so much about Greek and Roman ships are entirely lacking from Phoenician sites. In fact, one of the best descriptions of a Phoenician ship comes, curiously enough, from the Bible, where in an extended metaphor the prophet Ezekiel compares the fate of Tyre to a shipwreck.
The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, take up a lament concerning Tyre. Say to Tyre, Your domain was on the high seas; your builders brought your beauty to perfection. They made all your timbers of pine trees from Hermon, they took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you. Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars; of cypress wood from the coasts of Cyprus they made your deck, inlaid with ivory. Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail and served as your banner; your awnings were of blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah. Men of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen; your skilled men, O Tyre, were aboard as your seamen. Veteran craftsmen of Gebal were on board as shipwrights to caulk your seams. All the ships of the sea and their sailors came alongside to trade for your wares. ...Your oarsmen take you out to the high seas. But the east wind will break you to pieces in the heart of the sea. Your wealth, merchandise and wares, your mariners, seamen and shipwrights, your merchants and all your soldiers, and everyone else on board will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your shipwreck. ...Now you are shattered by the sea in the depths of the waters; your wares and all your company have gone down with you."
Allowing for a certain amount of hyperbole and poetic licence, we get a picture of a ship made of pine wood, with a mast that carried a linen sail, a deck shelter (we may doubt the purple and the decks inlaid with ivory unless we are talking about a royal vessel) and rowers or oarsmen. Mention of caulking gives us a clue about building techniques.
Still, valuable as it is, it would be difficult to draw up a detailed picture of a Phoenician vessel from this description and unfortunately, we have not found the remains of any Phoenician ships - but it is possible that this is about to change.
Florida based Odyssey Marine Exploration Incorporated, a commercial salvage company searching in the deep waters of the western Mediterranean for a British naval ship that sank three centuries ago with a cargo of bullion worth some five million dollars, stumbled across a heap of amphorae half a mile under the sea. Brown and red clay amphorae lie in a jumble on the seabed, some partly buried in the ooze, some broken, but the majority in pristine condition apart from the marine life that enshrouds them. An estimate, always difficult in the inky darkness of the ocean depths, indicates that there may be hundreds of the amphorae.
Greg Stemm, director of operations, took the video tape of his robot camera to experts in the field of nautical archaeology. The amphorae, which are approximately three feet long, have long, narrow necks and small ear-shaped handles and have been tentatively identified as typical of those from Carthage, Phoenicia's greatest colony, in the fifth century BC. This would place the wreck close to the time of Ezekiel and right at the peak of Phoenician power.
The exciting thing is that beneath the heap of amphorae there must be the remains of the ship which carried them, and in the anaerobic conditions in the sea-floor ooze, there is a good possibility that some or much of the ship may have survived. Even if none of the timbers remain, there will still be tools, coins and personal items from the period that will be of immense interest to archaeologists and historians alike.
Stemm is willing - possibly even eager - to learn more about the ancient shipwreck, but Odyssey is a commercial organisation whose shareholders will have something to say if it does not make a profit. On the other hand, as a commercial organisation, archaeologists view Odyssey with caution or even distaste. Yet both need the other: Odyssey needs the expertise of the archaeologists in order to make the most of their discovery as well as to lend credibility to whatever they may find. The archaeologists need Odyssey for their knowledge and skill - to say nothing of the very expensive equipment - required to work at such depths.
At present both sides are seeking to raise finance for a joint venture. The archaeologists are turning to the traditional sources of funding - universities and museums - while Stemm is in touch with television companies and publicity agents. He hopes to raise money by selling film rights and organising public exhibitions. Both seem cautiously excited by the project, which will probably cost in excess of four million dollars.
"This has tremendous potential as a way to bring archaeology into the world of business," declared Cheryl Ward, professor at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology of Texas University. "This is an exciting ship because it is from a time that is poorly known and a culture that is known to us only from land excavations and the accounts of their enemies."
Of course the archaeologists would love to excavate this discovery by themselves, just as they have excavated other shipwrecks in the past. Scuba diving equipment, however, only allows work at about 100 feet below the surface. Although divers in the North Sea do venture below this depth, they require specialised equipment and decompression chambers, things beyond the reach of most academic budgets.
At half a mile down - nearly 3,000 feet - the new wreck is far beyond anything that has ever been attempted before. It will be impossible for humans to venture out into the dark, freezing water and tremendous pressure to grope with their hands for the tiny, fragile objects they hope to find. Excavation will have to be by means of robot arms, remote-controlled submersibles and other hi-tech machines. Clearly there is a lot to be learned about excavating by such means and it will not be cheap. William Murray of the Archaeological Institute of America recognises the fact: "If academic archaeologists are going to deal with deep-water shipwrecks, it's going to have to be through cooperative efforts like this," he said. "We need to explore the possibilities."
Recently Robert Ballard has used military equipment - including a hi-tech submarine - to explore the floor of the Mediterranean. He discovered five Roman ships and many other wrecks. The deep sea promises to be a treasure house of antiquity, for not all sinkings took place in the shallow coastal waters that so far have been explored by archaeologists.
