Thursday, August 19, 2010

Ancient Navigators: A Random Round-up of Recent News

Maritime and marine archaeology has been developing by leaps and bounds the past five-six years and is the new "it" specialty in archaeology.  I find each new discovery fascinating, whether an under-water wreck or a new theory on how we got from Point A to Point B 50,000, 100,000 or 150,000 years ago!  I still vividly remember reading Kontiki by Thor Heyerdahl in my early teenage years (I believe the report of the expedition was first popularly published in 1950, a year before I was born) - but I'd already been captured by the world of the unexplored and the world of never-ending questions before then.

When I was 11, I declared that I wanted to be a paleontologist and study ancient bones.  That desire, which morphed into an interest in geology and a fabulous rock collection, then passed to anthropology, and archaeology, finally settled into a permanent love affair with ancient history.  Although I chose a different career path, far away from archaeology, anthropology and ancient history, as you see here I am today, thanks to the internet.  As I am now closer to retirement than the beginning of my career, I look forward to the day when I can march down to the Milwaukee Public Museum and enroll in their volunteer docent program. 

New ways to chart our maritime past

By combining meteorology and archaeology, scientists may discover old sea routes and mooring sites, and boost our knowledge of ancient maritime culture
Public release date: 19-Aug-2010

University of Stavanger

Archaeologists dive deep for revealing Florida artifacts
Thursday, August 19, 2010
TBO.com Tampa Bay Online
By KEITH MORELLI

The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - In the pitch-black depths of an isolated North Port spring sits a silt-covered ledge that is revealing secrets about a prehistoric nomadic people, secrets held in murky silence for 100 centuries. Now, with diving gear and artifact-collecting bags, archaeologists with the University of Miami and The Florida Aquarium are sweeping away the muck and uncovering that distant past. This stuff is from 10,000 years ago, when wandering tribes traversed Florida. Their travels included stopovers at what is now known as Little Salt Spring, 90 minutes south of Tampa.

Aug. 19, 2010, 7:01 a.m. EDT

Odyssey Marine Exploration Challenges Claims by Spain in Its "Black Swan" Appellate Reply
TAMPA, Fla., Aug 19, 2010  -- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. today filed its Reply to Spain's Response in the "Black Swan" case, currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia. This is expected to be the last round of written pleadings at the appellate court level. Odyssey's filing is available for review.
Odyssey is appealing the district court's dismissal of the case based on the court's finding of lack of federal jurisdiction. Odyssey's Reply presents the following documented facts that debunk the misrepresentations made by Spain that contributed to the clear error in the district court's earlier ruling and that have been repeated in Spain's appellate Response --

You don't need to be an expert in legal language to get the gist of the arguments being placed for and against the American Company Odyssey Marine Exploration's claim for millions of dollars of gold recovered from shipwrecks discovered off the coast of Spain. 

Diver says he found Westmoreland shipwreck

BY ALEX PIAZZA
August 19, 2010
(Traverse City, Michigan, USA)
Ross Richardson set out on yet another search in what had become a series of personal expeditions for one of the Great Lakes' noted shipwrecks. The Lake Ann real estate agent and avid diver traversed the water near the Sleeping Bear Dunes for years, but never tracked down the elusive Westmoreland — a vessel that foundered near South Manitou Island in a Lake Michigan winter storm on Dec. 7, 1854.  But on July 7, 2010, that all changed...  Check out Mysteries of Michigan for background and photos. 

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