Serhii VORONOV: The search for Byzantine amphorae was a risky experiment

Those unique amphorae were raised from the depth of 126 meters, from the so-called “Foros ship” that sank 20 kilometers from the Foros Cape in the Crimea in the 11-13th centuries. This is a priceless finding which has already been assessed by UNESCO. The search for the “Foros ship” was quite a risky experiment. Previously only remote controlled underwater devices have worked this deep. But the Ukrainian expedition managed to do it. Serhii VORONOV, the leader of the expedition, who heads the Department of Underwater Heritage at the Archeology Institute of the NAN of Ukraine, told about the exploration of the medieval sail-row wooden vessel and the treasures it revealed.

Serhii, the medieval amphorae that have been brought to the surface are unbroken and well-preserved. Is this a rare finding?

“Very much. Our fellows gasped when they saw them. The amphorae look as if they were made yesterday, they are ready to use. Why is deep-water archeology so beautiful? A subject that fell 1,000 years ago to the seabed preserves its original shape. Besides, wooden vessels do not sink as fast as the iron ones; they submerge very slowly, so they hit the seabed softer. With time the connecting parts of the ship’s body are ruined and the ship falls apart like a construction set. In land archeology experts work with objects that were damaged when they were still used, and time puts a certain imprint on them as well. Conversely, in our case the hydrogen sulfide layer also ‘conserves’ the objects under water. At the 126-meter depth there is no trace of flora or fauna, which also adds to the amphorae’s safety.”

Who were the divers, that agreed to go so deep?

“I invited the best of the best. We issued a call stating that a task should be fulfilled at the depth of 126 meters, which is impossible for remote-controlled devices. Some two tens divers met our call. We invited Ukraine’s best diver Oleksandr Spyrydonov, Russia’s best, Andrei Bykov, and Britain’s best, Martin Robson.”

Was the cold a big problem for the expedition?

“When the air temperature was about 40 degrees Celsius, the temperature of the upper layer of the sea water was 30 degrees, and at the depth of 17 to 20 meters the water temperature was as low as five degrees. The divers simply froze. All of them had their own secrets of warming themselves. They managed to reach the ship only during the seventh submersion. Oleksandr Spyrydonov was the first to reach it.”

How was it possible to explore the wreck in these complicated conditions?

“Divers could stay underwater only for 15 minutes. Had they stayed longer, they had to spend more time to come up to the surface. But the object was so interesting that the divers explored it for 20-22 minutes, rather than 15. Therefore it took the divers six, not three hours to get to the surface. Certainly, it was worth of it. The divers were full of delight when they told us how happy they were to touch a real medieval vessel. They measured the wooden parts of the ship manually, using archeological rulers.”

Where are the amphorae now?

“The amphorae are already in Kyiv, in a lab, where the experts are trying to place them in terms of the provenance of the earthenware used, and find an answer to the question, ‘From where was the ship coming?’ We are working with experts from Italy, Spain and France, trying to find analogues. Incidentally, the found amphorae had no corks. But further exploration helped us find leather corks inside the amphorae. It is just that the corks grew old and the sea pushed them inside. It is quite possible that under the 1.5-2-meter layer of silt there can be utensils where the wine has been preserved.

“With the help of the found earthenware we want to determine whose ship it was, because we are not quite sure that the boat was from Byzantium. In those times, the Black Sea was already visited by Italian ships — from the republics of Venice, Pisa and Genoa. Incidentally, the loss of such a big ship is not covered in documents that have been preserved. There are many other interesting things on the ship. For example, there is a trebuchet on board. There were no artillery weapons at the time.”

Can human remains be preserved at this depth?

“Organic substance dissolves in the sea in two years. Certain conditions are needed to preserve human bones at least partially. Some bones were preserved on the ship that sank near Odesa during World War II. This was possible because the cabin was locked, as was the porthole. On 35-meter depth near Tarkhankut, where we surfaced a plane that fell into the sea, we found only part of a skull. We find no antique or medieval bones on underwater objects. There we only find personal possessions and luggage.”

Have your foreign fellows assessed the finding?

“There was a response. We sent the report to the UNESCO HQ in Paris. They replied, ‘Dear fellows, unknowingly you have broken the world record. Archeologists have never performed their work this deep in free-swimming regime.’ So, Ukraine has become famous. Spyrydonov and Bykov will be recommended for UNESCO awards.”

Incidentally, are these non-standard plunges a special load for an organism?

“Divers are very healthy people. They carry tens kilograms of equipment, plus movie cameras and regular cameras. Though the weight is not felt underwater, it is hard to carry it and the loading is still immense. Without doubt, they suffered from nitrogen intoxication and were tired afterwards, they fell on the benches at once and in 15 minutes they felt very hungry because their bodies demanded renewal of their energy balance. Such plunges require lots of energy.”

These people are heroes.

“Indisputably, they are. One should be very courageous to go to a depth where nobody has gone before. We have appealed to the Verkhovna Rada with a request to award the divers who took part in the expeditions. I think this should be done, because in our time there is little space for real heroic deeds. It is good that the divers accepted our proposal. All of them understood that the search of the “Foros ship” was quite a risky operation. At the same time, such a chance happens once in a lifetime.”

Next year the famous researcher Dr. Robert Ballard who found the Titanic is going on an expedition to the Black Sea. Are you going to work with him?

“I intend to. The main purpose of our work with Americans consists in using their deep-sea equipment, the sonar systems Hercule and Argus, which work at the depth of four and six kilometers, respectively. We want to explore the Black Sea’s ‘lowland,’ which is 2,200 meters deep, with the help of those devices. It is quite likely that we will find ships built 2,000-3,000 years ago.”

There is another important nuance: they say that “illegal archeology” will be severely punished nowadays. How will you comment on the situation?

“Today the articles of the Criminal Code, the Law ‘On Safeguarding the Cultural and Archeological Heritage’ are not efficient. Criminals are punished for plundering burial mounds, but the plunderers of underwater monuments have never been tried in court. Of course, scholars are worried by this. The experts of the Department of Underwater Heritage at the Institute of Archeology, the NAN of Ukraine, had to amend and supplement the laws currently in force (the amendments were supported by the VR committees). Those amendments targeted the laws ‘On border troops,’ ‘On cultural heritage,’ where the violations are outlined in detail, as well as the mechanisms of combating them.”

When corresponding laws will be signed by Viktor Yanukovych, will the usage of a metal detector be punished by a prison sentence?

“A person using a metal detector will first be punished by a huge fine, and the equipment will be confiscated. Once the person is caught using the metal detector for the second time, he or she may face a three-to-five-year prison term. Hopefully, these measures will help us to bring order to the current state of affairs.”