Family members fingerprints remain on terracotta figurines after thousands of years, and I see no reason that the couldn't last forever. Should  we all leave our mark on the anthropocene record by making clay items for eternity? 

Diving on the location of Cleopatra's Private Island this October and November as part of the team of Underwater Archaeologist Franck Goddio provided amazing results, as always.

"The most well-known of these pleasure barges were the gigantic floating palaces of the Ptolemies; including Cleopatra VII’s which she used to show Julius Caesar the sights of Egypt in the spring of 47 BC."

The ancient author Strabo, who visited Alexandria around 29-25 BC, described the type of ship and how it was used: “…they hold feasts in cabin-boats (thalamagoi), in which they enter the thick of the cyami and the shade of the leaves." (Geography XVII.1.15)

Lots of News outlets have picked up the preliminary results of this years excavations on the shipwreck we call K1, including:

The Guardian "An ancient Egyptian pleasure boat... has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, to the excitement of archaeologists".
Newsweek
BBC
MSN
DIvernet
Artnet

More Questions about Archaeology with Franck Goddio, from Hunterdon High School students and Educators.
These are some good ones! I'll start answering them in the comments in advance of this afternoons AMA.

Do you get to keep anything you find? Who keeps whatever you find?
What is your favorite thing to study (time period, person, culture, etc.)?
What countries have you worked with?
Do you have to have a speciality in history in order to do this work?
What does a book keeper do and why is there one on the expedition?
How do you discover dive sites (like shipwrecks)? What methods are used?
If Atlantis exists, where would it be?
Are all expeditions this international?
What is a Nautical Archeologist?
Which job on the boat is paid the most?
Are the skills needed for these jobs taught when you earn a degree? Or is there separate training?
Does everyone studying this area need to speak French?

Here are a bunch of questions from Students and Educators from the Hunterdon Central Regional High School. 
about what its like to work in Scientific Exploration; 

How did you get into this field of work?
Was this the field you always wanted to go into?
Does the new work force (18-22) seem more or less interested in working in your field of work?
What do you look forward to when you get to work?
When did you start this job and how did you find out about it?
How long have you had this job?
What was your training/education? How long was this and what did it cost?
What is your advice for someone who wants to do this job?
Do you always work with the same team for all your projects? How did you join the Franck Goddio team?
What is your yearly schedule like?
What is the hardest aspect of your job?
What kind of collaboration is needed with this career?
Does every professional work together all the time, or do some people work on indpendent projects?
Do people have trouble socializing with all the different languages spoken on the ship?

Students and Educators from the Hunterdon Central Regional High School have been sending in questions about Careers in Exploration while we are here in Egypt excavating Sunken Pharoanic Cities with the team of Underwater Archaeologist Franck Goddio.

We've broken the questions up into 4 subjects, including Diving General, Sunken Egypt Archaeology Project, Archaeology General, and Personal questions for me as someone who has had a career in exploration for many years.

Today we'll start with  Diving General. Here are the questions submitted so far;


What made you want to dive for a career?
How long have you been diving for?
When did you know that you wanted to be on a boat for your career?
What was your favorite dive?
What is the coolest thing you've seen or found yourself when diving?
Do you have any desire to start up Discoverer Scientific Charters again? Or your own independent company?
What bodies of water have you explored? Does it make a difference when you're diving?
How many dives have you been on?
What other diving do you do (apart from archaeology)?

Ill answer them one at a time in the comments below. Thanks for the great questions!

I sometimes get questions about what kind of education/ specialty people on board have pursued, and what type of skills are important. Including Shore support

So that there is not too much fixation on the university degrees, I will list them second, after the skillsets.
I'll also list how many team members have that specialty skill.

Specialty Skillsets;
UW Photographer/ photogrammetry expert (2)
UW Filmmaker/ UW videographer (1)
GIS Mapping Expert (2)
Commercial/ Professional Divers (6)
Archaeological/Scientific divers ( 6)
Chef de Cuisine ( 1)
Professional Mariners (5) 
IT Specialist ( 1) 
Book keeper (1)


Higher Education Degrees;

UW Archaeologist ( 5)
Egyptologist (2)
Ceramicist  ( 2)
Ancient Historian ( Greek/ Latin) (3)
Oceanograopher ( 1)
Nautical Archaeologist (1)
Geophysical Engineer ( 1)
On Mission Egyptian Archaeologist (5 )

3Some people have asked how many languages does it take for  Franck Goddio's team to function? Lets start with the basics of what languages are spoken on board.

French. At the core, it is a French Team. Dinnertime banter around the Table, Reports, and Briefings all happen in French first. Aspiring divers better study-up.

English. Almost every one has some capacity to communicate in English. (I'm pretty good at it!)

Arabic. Right now we are working in Egypt. Our excavation partners from the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities do speak English and or French, but the fishermen that operate our many small felucca offer an opportunity to learn and use some basic functional sailor Arabic ( like " Throw the anchor in the water here" and "pass me a sphinx detector, please")

Spanish. Many team members speak Spanish, and this is critical when we work off the Cuban coast, and its the mother tongue of a couple of team members.

German. 3 team members,( 2 German, and 1 Swiss) can tell stories about the rest of us in complete secrecy.

Russian. The sole Russian speaks English and French fluently and can read and write in ancient Greek.

Tagalog. Frequent work in the Philippines has taught many of us a few greetings, but one of our team speaks it like a native, because she is one!

But there is so much more to communication than just the language, including actually wanting to listen and understand what the other person wants to tell you.

The last language I want to mention is Diver Sign Language, which can be very tricky. My recommedations include; If you want to tell somebody something, make sure that they aren't busy ( or distracted by the water dredge sucking the glove off their hand) Make sure they can see your hand signals ( that there is sufficient visibility and your hands are in front of their face mask, not off in the periphery) and keep it short, ( like " I go up say Abdou stop pump now")

Let me know if you want to hear more about the languages spoken during an Underwater Archaeological Mission on Sunken Egyptian Cities.

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), the world's largest museum dedicated to a single civilization, has officially opened its doors. We are delighted that a selection of 132 finds from our research in the sunken cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus and the eastern harbour of Alexandria is now permanently on display at the GEM  Among them are the colossal statues of a Ptolemaic king, a queen and the god Hapy, all three about 5 metres high, which we discovered in Thonis-Heracleion.

As a member the team of Director of Excavations Franck Goddio, I'm writing now from my cabin on the Research Vessel Princess Duda, anchored over the site where we found the colossal statues. The entire IEASM Team on board  are proud of being able to contribute with to the impressive collection of the GEM. One of our goals is to make our research results accessible to the broad public and what could be better than having them presented in this fascinating museum.

Franck Goddio presents his research on the remains of a large religious complex in the Portus Magnus of Alexandria.