Following the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine’s State Service for National Cultural Heritage’s decision, the field committee of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine’s Institute of Archeology issued an open list allowing conducting underwater archeological explorations to Andrii Kulahin, a departmental head at the Chersonesus Tauricus National Conservation Area.
According to the archeologist, a similar expedition was conducted in 2012 and produced the desired results, as divers surveyed about 20 hectares of the water area, lifting a lot of pottery from the depths of 7 to 12 meters, including an unbroken black-figure pitcher and two early medieval amphoras. According to the conservation’s area press service, “explorations were conducted on five plots off the Heraklea Peninsula. In particular, we studied the human influence in the vicinity of Pisochna Bay (plot No. 1)... This section of the coast is widely used for recreation and includes two beaches, Pisochny and Soniachny. The 1965 Kadeev expedition discovered a probable 1st century A.D. shipwreck 30 to 35 meters offshore, and our explorers decided to check the status of this find in September 2012. The survey showed that a layer of sand at the site of the shipwreck was no more than 30 centimeters thick, as opposed to almost half a meter during the Kadeev expedition. All traces of the shipwreck were gone, too. Apparently, the changing nature of the bottom sediment dynamics on the site contributed to the development, being a consequence of the hydraulic structures’ construction in the area.”
However, it was probably the anchors the expedition’s members lifted from the seabed that became its least expected find. As noted by Kulahin, “Year 2012 saw a real success for archeologists as we discovered 12 stone anchors weighing 27.2 to 59.8 kilograms. We had never had such exhibits in the museum’s collection before.” Furthermore, Chersonesus expanded its borders in 2013, with the same expedition now responsible for the water area between Cape Lucullus and Cape Sarych.
Researchers of the Chersonesus Tauricus National Conservation Area expect underwater archeological expeditions to bring many new discoveries. And most likely, they will not be long in coming, as this year’s expedition will start shortly.
