12 June 2009

We are back on land following an eventful expedition in the Greek research vessel AEGAEO to the Kassian Strait, a broad seaway that runs between the desolate, rocky island of Kassos and the eastern tip of the big island of Crete. The Kassian Strait is one of the maritime gateways between the Aegean Sea and the wide open spaces of the eastern Mediterranean, and we hope ultimately to locate on the sea floor in this little-explored area the remains of any ancient ships that may have been wrecked while cruising between Greek ports and Egypt.

The mapping of the sea floor and the investigation of sonar targets went on virtually 24 hours a day for two weeks on the AEGAEO. The multibeam survey filled in the topographical map of this area, revealing a rugged terrain of drowned mountains, canyons and plateaus lying more than a mile below the surface. (The greatest depth in the Mediterranean lies directly south of Greece in the Oinussai Well, which goes down to a depth of 3 miles!) We also collected data with the sidescan sonar which showed a number of anomalies on the sea floor that resembled ancient shipwreck sites in their size and general configuration. And the sub-bottom profiler provided a sort of “X-ray vision” that penetrated the mud and other soft sediments on the sea floor, and revealed some of the underlying bedrock.

In the second week, we docked briefly at the beautiful Cretan port town of Siteia, ringed by spectacular hills, where we exchanged the multibeam team for the “Max Rover” team, that is, the international group of experts who operate the “Remote Operated Vehicle” or “ROV”. With its cable of more than a kilometer in length, and its video cameras, lights, titanium grab-arm, and electric powered propellers, the Max Rover is the ideal robot to explore deep waters, far beyond the reach of scuba divers or of the “Thetis” submersible.

For hours, the team watched the video images transmitted from the Max Rover as it tracked down the sonar targets one by one and showed which ones were really ancient pottery vessels that had been parts of ships’ cargoes, and which ones were simply rocks with a troublesome resemblance to ships or amphoras.

In the end, we had recorded the position of a number of ancient pottery vessels, spanning approximately one thousand years between the Classical Greek period in the 5th or 4th century BC, and the early Byzantine period of the first millennium AD. Future exploration will show whether these initial finds were moved from nearby shipwrecks by bottom currents, or were in fact isolated “empties” that were jettisoned from passing merchant ships as the crew finished consuming the wine or other contents during the course of their long voyages!

Perhaps the most memorable evening of the expedition was spent not on board the AEGAEO but on shore, in the narrow, winding streets of Siteia. The Greek members of the AEGAEO’s crew led us to a taverna with the beautiful name of KALE KARDIA, or “Good Heart”, where tables were spread out along the sidwalk, lit by a bright early summer moon. We sampled such local Cretan specialties as the clear alcoholic drink raki, mixed in this case with honey. Eventually the tables were strewn with the remains of an epic feast that included fish, squid, and octopus, all caught by local fishermen. At some point we heard music coming from inside the tavern, and discovered that a guitar player who lived nearby had begun to play popular songs, while four local men sang the words in beautiful harmony. The party moved indoors, for several more hours of impromptu music-making and traditional Greek dancing. Some of the Greek scientists proved to be first-class dancers, demonstrating many different steps and styles with great zest and precision. Most amazing was a solo performance in which the dancer placed a full wine glass on the tavern floor, and proceeded to execute elaborate steps, turns and leaps all around the glass without ever spilling the wine.

I left at 2:30 AM, but the more hardy members of the crew kept the festivities going to just before dawn. It was a memorable occasion in a memorable cruise.

Back on land in Greece, having bid farewell to our Greek colleagues and to the AEGAEO, I joined friends for a pilgrimage to the oracle site at Delphi, on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus. It was a very happy experience for me to reminisce about the work that I had carried out around the Temple of Apollo with my geological colleague Jelle de Boer, in search of ancient faults, sacred springs, and intoxicating gaseous emissions.

But it was also a moving experience to stand near the spot where the Delphic Oracle had deliverd what I believe to have been the most important of all ancient prophecies: the famous “Wooden Wall” oracle.

In the summer of 480 BC, the Athenians appeared doomed to be destroyed by the invading Persians under King Xerxes, who crossed from Asia to Greece with the largest army and fleet that the world had ever seen. Many citizens of Athens believed that they could only save themselves and their families by abandoning their city to the Persians, and seeking refuge in a new land, perhaps far to the west in Italy. In their desperation they sent envoys to Delphi to ask for guidance from the prophet god Apollo. The envoys received a cryptic oracle, which stated that Zeus would grant to Athena (the patron goddess of the Athenians) a “wooden wall”, which would endure, and which would be a blessing to them and to future generations.

The great Athenian statesman Themistocles convinced his fellow citizens that the “wooden wall” was really the newly built Athenian fleet of some two hundred triremes, all of them constructed of wood. Inspired by his confidence, the entire Athenian citizen body, rich and poor alike, manned the ships and ultimately broke the maritime strength of the Persian Empire in a great victory at Salamis, near Athens.

These ships, and the other historic ships of that long-ago time, are the prize that we seek on the floor of the sea. In our own age, when conflicts between East and West continue to shake the world, we can once again derive inspiration from the courage shown by the people of Athens, and the seafaring exploits of the world’s first great democracy. Somewhere, some day, one of the ships that took part in those epic events will come to light on the floor of the sea. It will be a great day for all of us when it does.