文档介绍：New Techniques of Archaeology and
Greek Shipwrecks of the
Sixth and Fifth Centuries BC1
E F. BASS
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Nautical Archaeology Program
Texas A&M University
HEN I FIRST spoke to the Society more than forty years
ago, the simple fact that I had used diving equipment to
excavate a Late Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of
W2
Turkey was enough to justify the talk as part of a symposium titled,
like this one, “Archaeology: New Techniques and Methods.” Now,
however, the use of scuba equipment to reach underwater sites is as
routine as the use of motor vehicles to reach terrestrial Between
1984 and 1994, for example, our Institute of Nautical Archaeology
(INA) at Texas A&M University conducted 22,500 dives to depths
between 145 and 200 feet4 in order to excavate another Late Bronze
Age wreck off the Turkish Thus, a paper about diving equip-
ment, suction pipes, and lifting balloons at this symposium would be
no more appropriate than a paper about a new model of pickup truck.
Of course there have been improvements in diving equipment since
my first underwater excavation, in 1960, which was partly funded and
later published by this Underwater gauges that enable the
1 Read 9 November 2002, as part of the symposium “Archaeology: New Techniques and
Methods.”
2 G. F. Bass, “The Cape Gelidonya Wreck: Preliminary Report,” American Journal of
Archaeology 65 (1961): 267–76; “A Bronze Age Shipwreck,” Expedition (Bull. Univ.
Museum of the Univ. of Pennsylvania) (1961): 2–11; G. F. Bass and P. Throckmorton,
“Excavating a Bronze Age Shipwreck,” Archaeology 14 (1961): 78–87.
3 J. P. Delgado, ed., Encyclopedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology (British
Museum Press, 1997; Yale University Press, 1998).
4 Because diving tables used on INA projects are in feet, all measurements given here are
in feet.
5 C. Pulak, “The Uluburun Shipwreck: An Overview,” International Journal of Nautica