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High Resolution Geophysical Investigation Of “Gura Portița – A” Ancient Ship Wreck Site And Surroundings (Nearshore Northern Romanian Littoral)
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 9th Congress of the Balkan Geophysical Society, Nov 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 5
Abstract
An astonishing archaeological discovery was made in spring 2016 in marine shallow waters off Gura Portița, a former fishing and camping point converted now in a modern resort located on the northern Romanian littoral. The wreck of an Roman ship, apparently with all its cargo consisting of over 1000 amphorae on board, was found on the sea bottom, in less than 5 m water depth. The subsequent brief underwater archaeological survey that followed in autumn 2016 carried out the photo-mosaic of the wreck site, sampled the wooden remains of the ship and brought to surface one amphora. Both, the radiocarbon analysis and the amphora-type classification yielded a dating to the mid-2nd century AD. The geophysical investigation carried out in May 2017, consisting of simultaneous side-scan sonar and magnetometry was able to provide a high resolution acoustic image of the sea bottom and also a detailed image of the total magnetic field, which made possible to identify several other target areas for the oncoming underwater archaeological searches.