Seeing as I spent over 20 years diving on the most important sunken cities in history as part of the team of legendary Underwater Archaeologist Franck Goddio, I ought to know what the competition is, right?

But there are a lot of sites with "Submerged Cultural Resources" (as the experts call them) out there, and with new technology and interest, new ones pop up regularly.

Not to mention the plethora of malignant videos and articles offering photoshopped and AI produced images of fantastical underwater scenes that never existed.

So I'm doing some digging, for my own interest, and will be plopping the interesting bits in here as posts.
Step one; A google search of the words "Sunken Cities" results below: Inconceivably, Heracleion did not come in first place! Scandalous!

Underwater Archaeologist Franck Goddio's Discovery of a Sunken Egyptian City that played a major role in Thousand year old Rituals lead by Egypts Last Pharaoh is revealed in this excellent documentary film. Here is a snip:

When I came out of the water after my morning dive yesterday, we had a visitor I hadn't expected on board. After shaking of the salt water and preparing to give a full report of the excavations progress on my end of the site to Director of Excavations Franck Goddio,  Franck said "Let me introduce you to Bill Weir, He's from America too".

Bill and his crew create a very popular hour-long show called 'The Wonder List". You might have seen or heard of it playing on CNN on Sunday nights. ​They tell the stories of extraordinary people, places, cultures and creatures at the crossroads. Exciting stuff. They also go way out of their way to capture beautiful imagery. I love that. And the underlying point of the show, if I got Bill's message correctly, is in "wondering" what the world will be like in the not too distant future, and what will be left that we will recognize from today.. On hearing that, they had me hook, line, and sinker.

 Franck asked me to take Bill for a tour of the site we are working on during the current archaeological  excavation on the sunken city of Heracleion (or Thonis, in ancient Egyptian), I was enthusiastic to share the process of exploration under the sea.

Before the dive, Bill and his film crew toured the ship and filmed conservation of artifacts, the 3-D photogrammetry process, our Ceramologue Catherine at work, and the many disciplines involved in an underwater archaeological excavation on a city that's been under the sea for over a thousand years. When the time came, we jumped in ( With Roland and Yoann shooting video, and Christof shooting stills) and took a leisurely stroll through the ancient city, taking in the ruins and landscape that very few people have seen since they disappeared beneath the sea.  

It was a very pleasant dive, but what I enjoyed the most was Bills excitement in describing what he had seen to his crew, and the cameras. He seemed genuinely surprised at what the site held in store.

And for most of us, the archaeological divers on Francks team, that is what this job is really about; sharing the fascinating things that we are privileged to uncover with the world, and hoping that they will be as amazed as we are.

Later in the afternoon The Wonder List Filmmakers caught the last felucca going back to the fishermen's port in Abu Kir, in order to continue shooting in Alexandria and the Nile River Delta. It will be a while before the show completes the process of creation. Months for sure.

But in the meantime, as soon as I get a reasonable internet connection or return home, I look forward to checking out "The Wonder List" to see what other stories they have covered, and find out if we will likely be classified extraordinary as a places, or as creatures.


All the best,
​Eric

http://osiris-zuerich.ch/
http://www.franckgoddio.org/
http://www.hiltifoundation.org/en/
http://www.ieasm.org/
http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/ocma.html



inary people, places, cultures and creatures at a crossroads.CNN's Bill Weir and filmmaker Philip Bloom tell the stories of extraordinary people, places, cultures and creatures at a crossroads.

Alexander is an expert on ancient shipwreck construction and has discovered some fascinating new characteristics on one of the many shipwrecks that are associated with the sunken Egyptian city of Heracleion/Thonis.

He also plays classical guitar. On the long, quiet evenings on board, the sound of his music drifts gracefully out of cabin #1 and down the corridor, bringing joy to all, especially those of us in cabins 3 and 5.

Despite his overall peaceful demeanor, a warning; It does not extend to the chess board.

For more information on the Heracleion and the shipwrecks please visit the Franck Goddio Society Website, or the upcoming exhibition.

http://osiris-zuerich.ch/
http://www.franckgoddio.org/
http://www.hiltifoundation.org/en/
http://www.ieasm.org/
http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/ocma.html

A commercial and scientific diver from Seattle emailed me some questions about our on-going excavations here in the Bay of Abu Kir "I am particularly interested in your excavation and recovery methods.", he asked.

Thanks for writing in. I can appreciate how working divers want to know the nuts and bolts of how we actually work underwater. Today I have some time to answer, as the wind picked up overnight, and although 2 of us were in the water at 730 am, the conditions were still too bad for archaeological excavations. 50 cm visibility and a surge on the bottom. we secured the gear in place and returned to the ship.

The broad strokes of our excavation tools and methodology are covered on the Franck Goddio Website under the heading "System Approach and Technology"  including descriptions for sume tools you are probably thinking of, such as the unromantic water dredge, as well as a lot of detail about that most difficult subject of all underwater work, Positioning.

What is not mentioned so much there is that every diver, after every dive, gives Franck a full reporting of everything done and seen during the dive, as well as observations and impressions, that can lead to a better overall understanding of work progress on the site.

I hope that provides some interesting reading, and if anyone has more questions about our work and life on board as the dive team of  L'INSTITUT EUROPÉEN D'ARCHÉOLOGIE SOUS-MARINE, please send them my way. 

All the best,
Eric


See Exposition Osiris in Zurich

http://www.osiris-zuerich.ch/
http://www.franckgoddio.org/
http://www.hiltifoundation.org/en/
http://www.ieasm.org/
http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/ocma.html

When I first heard of this team of French Divers, who travel the world making fantastic discoveries, lead by a passionate Underwater Archaeologist, who had been together for years, I had to learn more about them.

The introduction came through team diverr Sue Hendrickson (The Paleontologist ), and imagine my amazement when I was offered the opportunity to join the team. The irony is that now, 20 years of exploration and amazing discoveries later, the team is still exploring, and most of the faces have remained the same. 

Today L'INSTITUT EUROPÉEN D'ARCHÉOLOGIE SOUS-MARINE dive team are still a French Team, although the number of nations represented on board is great, the culture remains overwhelmingly French.

That being said, the passports represented on board today, at anchor in the Bay of Abu Kir, Egypt, include: French, Egyptian, Czech, Cuban, Russian, American, and British

Can you imagine the cacophony at the Dinner table? Its a type of camaraderie that I think ony can exist at sea after hard labor in pursuit of a common goal, over a fine meal, and with the knowledge that another amazing discovery awaits us the following day.

These are the thoughts I have today. Proud to be part of the team.


http://www.osiris-zuerich.ch/
http://www.franckgoddio.org/
http://www.hiltifoundation.org/en/
http://www.ieasm.org/
http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/ocma.html