Three-quarters of the Earth's surface is covered by water, and beneath the oceans, lakes, and rivers lies a physical record of human history including shipwrecks, submerged cities, and other traces of the past. Most underwater archaeologists specialize in studying historic watercraft and nautical archaeology, but other submerged sites that are studied include sunken settlements and offerings placed in sinkholes or bogs. Laws require that underwater cultural sites be documented by archaeologists before being impacted by activities like development, fishing, drilling, or cable laying. Studying past shipwrecks has also helped improve maritime safety practices.

1. Ben Ritt
Session #4 Underwater Survey
7/5/2012

3.  3/4of Earth’s surface is water
 Water-borne transportation has allowed
exploration of much of the globe and
facilitated the rise and fall of great empires.
 Beneath the surface of our
oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands lies a
physical record of humankind
;shipwrecks, inundated cities, harbor
works, and other traces of our past.

4.  The majority of
underwater
archaeologists
specialize in the study
of nautical
archaeology: the study
of the construction and
operation of all types
historic watercraft.

5.  Other types of sites in
include inundated land
sites; sinkholes or bogs
where people placed
offerings or buried their
dead; cities and harbors
now submerged by sea
level change or
earthquake; and
dwelling, agricultural,
and industrial sites along
rivers, bays, and lakes.

7.  Many laws and
regulations require
that sites be located,
inventoried, and
studied by qualified
archaeologists before
they are impacted or
destroyed by
development.

8.  Often Submerged sites such as ship wrecks
pose a danger to modern human endeavors;
shipping lanes, seabed mining, commercial
fishing, and oil and natural gas drilling can be
affected by submerged cultural resources.
 Ship hulls can abrade and cut trans-oceanic
cables, commercial fishing nets can become
entangled endangering crews, and many
other dangers to people can arise from
submerged material culture.

9. Trans oceanic cable map Cable layer, $1.6 million

10.  Studying where and
how ships have
wrecked in the past
has lead to
developments in safer
marine navigation, with
the placement of
lighthouses, safety
beacons, the marking
of dangerous currents
on nautical charts.

11.  120 lead ingots recovered 20 years ago from a
Roman shipwreck, 80 B.C. - 50 B.C. off the coast
of Sardinia
 Stored at National Archaeological Museum in
Cagliari, southern Sardinia.
 Over the past 2,000 years the lead has almost
completely lost its natural radioactivity. It is
therefore the perfect material with which to
shield the CUORE (Cryogenic Underground
Observatory for Rare Events) detector, which
Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN)

12. Lead ingots being Radiation shield for particle
recovered. detector made from the ingots.