
Exceptionally Preserved Ancient Ships Discovered in the Black Sea - Thevet
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/another-fleet-ancient-ships-discovered-black-sea-180964978/?no-ist
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ivan_at_hn
"The wrecks survive in such good condition because at a certain depth the
Black Sea has anoxic, or oxygen-free, conditions preventing decay. Many of the
ships sit at the bottom of the sea with their masts upright, their rudders
still at the ready and their cargo bays full of untouched goods."

As far as I know, this oxygen-free water layer below approximately 150 meters
from the surface makes Black Sea unique. Virtually anything drowned in it from
the beginning of marine history is in perfect condition. If I was a beginner
archaeologist who dreams of big discoveries then I'd look at the Black Sea in
the first place.

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hanniabu
Yeah it kind of boggles my mind that this isn't a well explored area due to
its preservation characteristics

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amelius
Perhaps because distributing our efforts over different areas gives us a
broader view of history?

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jamesrcole
I doubt it has much to do coordinated efforts to achieve globally optimum
results, and more to do with practicalities of where researchers are located,
what sort of funding is available and the like.

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njarboe
Of course what an archeologist studies in due to the interaction on many
different drivers, but a main one is novelty of the find. Find one good site
and an archeologist can support a career studying it. Exploring new places and
discovering unique artifacts is at the heart of the myth of the archeologist.
Indian Jones, King Tuts tomb, etc.

~~~
jamesrcole
I agree, but I think that kind of factor is very different to what the comment
I was replying to was talking of, in "because distributing our efforts over
different areas gives us a broader view of history" as if it was some sort of
co-ordination with the goal of creating a broader view. What you're talking
about is an individual seeking novelty.

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joshuaheard
There is a theory that the Black Sea was created cataclysmically when a
natural dam broke holding the waters of the Mediterranean back. This is
supposedly the source of the Great Flood myth. The article mentioned some
flooded villages. I wonder if they will find any evidence in this regard.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis)

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Florin_Andrei
> _This is supposedly the source of the Great Flood myth_

It might be the source of _a_ flood myth. But such myths are pervasive, you
can find them in nearly every culture on Earth. Surely such a story has
originated more than once.

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neffy
Given the age of the myths a better hypothesis is that they go back to the sea
level rises that accompanied the end of the last ice age.

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twic
Allow Stanisław Szukalski to explain [1]:

"When the Secondary Globe (the lavaic ocean bottoms) began to submerge in the
beginning of the last Farsolar Epoch, the global seas were forced to glide off
the Primary (Geologic) Globe":

And that's why people paint their faces. Also, yetis. Okay, zermatism is
controversial, but he produced some very good art and sculpture from it.

[1] [http://unurthed.com/2007/12/23/szukalskis-science-of-
zermati...](http://unurthed.com/2007/12/23/szukalskis-science-of-zermatism/)

~~~
Florin_Andrei
Yeah, that's bullshit, sorry.

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fenollp
This is awesome, now where are the 3D scans?

Their website seem down [0]. Here a cute video though [1]. Some nice pictures
[2].

> All of the artefacts that were found by the team have been 3-D printed using
> one of the most detailed 3-D printers in the world.

Next time just create a .torrent file...

[0] [http://blackseamap.com](http://blackseamap.com)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWtX233YQNc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWtX233YQNc)

[2] [http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/incredible-ship-
grave...](http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/incredible-ship-graveyard-
discovered-in-black-sea-features-2500-years-of-perfectly-preserved-ships/all/)

~~~
coheeman
Those pictures and 3D models look extraordinary. According to that iflscience
article, there will be a documentary about these findings soon. I can't wait.

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meigwilym
Previous discussion on a NYT article on this subject:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12936511](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12936511)

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fairpx
Fascinating. Would love to see Google (who's mission _is_ to collect the
world's information) start 3d scanning and mapping the world underwater in a
more detailed way.

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KGIII
I don't know if it remains true, because they had started an underwater
mapping by drone project. But, until recently, or perhaps still, we had more
accurate maps of the surface of the moon than we had maps of the bottom of the
oceans.

There is a bunch of stuff we have left to do. There's still a constant stream
of discoveries being made in the depths of the oceans.

The science is hardly settled and, I suppose, that's what makes it so
exciting. We have critters we can't even fully understand how they survive,
and then we have all sorts of smaller mysteries. Like eels... We only first
observed them mating just a couple of years ago, and that was just a single
species.

~~~
dsp1234
There are approximately 3x10^28 molecules of water per cubic meter (assuming
pure water, which is obviously not the case).

A third of the way to the moon, there are approximately 7x10^6 molecules of
hydrogen per cubic meter[0].

From high earth orbit (assume 60k km), it's about 300k km to the moon.

The average depth of the ocean is about 3.5km.

For simplification, let's assume that a molecule of water and a molecule of
hydrogen have the same density (which they don't)

From high earth orbit, in a straight line to the moon, there would be about
2x10^12 hydrogen molecules in the way.

From the ocean surface to the average depth, there would be about 1x10^32
water molecules in the way.

Not getting into the optical properties of water vs hydrogen, or the fact that
the math is much different for a probe orbiting the moon, there's just more
"stuff" between the ocean surface and the ocean floor, and a satellite and the
moon.

[0] -
[http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/facts.html](http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/facts.html)

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empath75
It'll be interesting to see if there are any other antikythera mechanisms
buried down there.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
That would be a good place to search for such things.

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peterwwillis
The Smithsonian Magazine still has some of the most atrocious mobile ads I see
on any website today. They really make me never want to click their links from
a phone, even though I know it's stuff I would find fascinating.

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gulperxcx
The ads where you have to scroll to make them go away are the worst

