Wow, what a stretch – despite Greece being a new work locale for me, the start of the ‘Return to Antikythera‘ expedition set in as old hat. As these things go, challenges are defined, solutions are identified, and then it comes down to putting together all the pieces with a degree of flexibility to meet the challenges.
Despite all the flag waving and publicity that the project managed to muster, particularly with the excitement of the Exosuit making its debut work performance for science, for me the most important element of the project was appreciating the depth of national pride that this effort brought to the country of Greece and its people.
The Greek Navy, who we worked very closely with aboard the vessel ‘Thetis‘ to stage the Exosuit operation, met us with a warm welcome, and were so very proud to be engaged in this technical demonstration. As I later learned, there is a bit of a rivalry with their neighboring Turkish Navy, who operates a Hardsuit program for deep water tasks. Being able to supervise Fotis Lazarou’s (Greek Navy Diver) Exosuit dive, which was the deepest made at the Antikythera site, was in my opinion one of the proudest moments of the project. This was also a challenge – I trained Lazarou on the suit at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the spring, and evident at that time was the challenge of working through language barriers with technical information. The enthusiasm of the Greek team pushed it all through however, and we both worked together to communicate through these barriers and make it all happen. In the end, the common language of the life aquatic – depth, time, pressure – became readily understood out of shear necessity.
A few project press links:
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2786434/Search-ancient-underwater-computer-begins-Archaeologists-wear-Exosuit-rummage-2-200-year-old-shipwreck.html
- http://news.yahoo.com/exosuit-gets-wet-quest-buried-shipwreck-treasure-143236979.html
- http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/expeditions/2014/10/08/return-to-the-antikythera-shipwreck-the-first-mission-for-exosuit/
What’s next? Well, several exciting finds were made at the research site including an array of Bronze age artifacts which substantiate further excavation as it is clearly evident that high value antiquities remain concealed at the site. What remains a challenge is realizing the massive amount of time at depth to carry out a careful excavation across the full scale of the wreck site – which is now believed to be significantly larger than previously documented.
While weather severely limited the extent of Exosuit operations this year, I think the entire team is convinced that this remains the safest means to be productive over lengthy blocks of time at the study site. Future work with the Exosuit at Antikythera is certainly on the horizon, and will remain a topic for discussion over the coming months.
The ‘Return to Antikythera‘ project was jointly organized by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The author acknowledges the J.F. White Contracting Company for their forward looking investment into making the Exosuit ADS available for scientific programs, and for Hublot, the Swiss watchmaker, for sponsoring the Exosuit operation at Antikythera.
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