31 - 08 - 2001.  SOA   [English]

Strange things have been happening in our Anatolian ‘Bermuda Triangle’. Captain Zafer keeps seeing very large fish but mysteriously failing to catch them. Yesterday one of the small cups at the column wreck was found turned upside down, even though there’s no current down there. We suspect an octopus. Then something came and stole all our fresh water: about 1000 carefully horded liters of it. A very large octopus? Then there’s the fact that our Director keeps losing his sense of direction and forgetting to wear his swimming shorts. That in itself is not unusual, but today an old diving compass appeared on the sea bed, apparently placed just so that Tufan would find it. It’s almost as if we are being watched…

At least some of the mysteries are being solved. After some intensive weeding, we were able to measure the exposed sections of marble, confirming that all eight drums were designed to fit together into a single huge Doric column shaft and abacus. Just below the main stack there is a marble disk, 1.20m wide and approximately 2cm thick, with a square protuberance at its center that matches the ‘attachment’ features of the drums; clearly it was also part of the column. The shaft narrows from about 2m at the base to 1.5m at the abacus, and the exposed sections of the drums range in height from 0.95 to 1.10m, so it would have stood around 9m high (for comparison, the columns of the Artemision were about twice that height). Two marble slabs placed on top of the drums and numerous pieces lying in the sand have no clear relationship to the column that we can determine. It is difficult to get precise dimensions when the lowest sections of the drums are not exposed, and everything is heavily eroded and concreted, but photo-modeling should still produce good results here.

In the meantime, fine ware keeps on appearing in what we are tentatively calling the ‘bow’ area, where weeding recently revealed a small lamp and a delicate metal handle. It appears the ship was carrying a number of small jugs with narrow tapering necks and heart-shaped bodies in addition to the larger transport amphoras. All in all it makes for a very confusing picture. The column must have been made to order, but the rest of the cargo appears to consist of regular trade goods. Again we return to the question of how material needed for large marble structures was transported to building sites. Was it conducted on an ad hoc basis, using whatever private transport was available? Or was this column truly a one-off item, intended to repair an existing structure? As with so many similar questions, the answers will probably not come from this wreck alone, but from the study of every comparable site that has been reported. And even if we reach no conclusions ourselves, every piece of information we can report about this site contributes something to the larger jigsaw puzzle of history.

Since we are limiting ourselves to a two-hour surface interval, for safety reasons we have decided not to put two dives a day onto the column wreck. Fortunately, there is a shallower Byzantine wreck scattered across the rocks close by, perfect for the second dive. The identity of this amphora-carrier has yet to be firmly established, but it seems to contain at least two amphora types and a several large, fairly coarse vessels including a bowl and a krater. One of the interesting things about it is the number of vessels and sherds that seem to be INSIDE small caves, sometimes deep inside. So much for shipwrecks being undisturbed time capsules: this one has clearly been ransacked by octopuses (it’s a rough neighborhood). One wonders about the archaeological ethics involved in sticking one’s arm into an octopus hole and pulling stuff out to get a closer look at it. One also wonders about the possibility of sticking one’s hand into the mouth of a great big hungry moray eel. One wonders if there is good way to trick one’s buddy into sticking their arm into the hole first.

Our doctor Dogu unfortunately had to leave us today, after refusing to make any comments on the mental health of the remaining team members. Yes, we are definitely being watched...