Oldest Intact Shipwreck found in Black Sea (Possibly Odysseus Ship?)

Credit: BLACK SEA MAP/EEF EXPEDITIONS

A team of Anglo-Bulgarian scientists just a few days ago have confirmed that there is an intact shipwreck in the bottom of Black Sea that dates back to 400 BC. First of all we gonna learn about the whole initiative and project that discovered this shipwreck and then we gonna dive in (see what i did there?) and learn more about the ship.

Project MAP 

The initials of project MAP stands for MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT and are exclusively involved with the area of the Black Sea. The mission is to discover what it's hidden below the surface of the Black Sea. It doesn't necessarily have to do with a specific era, the team just wanna find out what is hidden in there and understand better our history and give some answers too. 

Let's learn 2 terms before we continue that gonna help us understand the project better:

• Maritime Archaeology: The study of people and civilizations of the past using artifacts that are found near or in seas,lakes,rivers. 
• Geology: Basically is the study of all the rocks and dirt!

Now that we got that covered let's move on

For that purpose the University of Southampton has partnered with the Bulgarian Academy of Science, the Center For Underwater Archaeology Sozopol and many others that you can find here. Thus they will combine "powers" and knowledge of different fields from archaeology to geophysics and even filming! They need to understand all the factors of the Black Sea from a geophysics aspect and at the same time they need the archaeology team to determine the cultural value of whatever they find as well as the accurate dating. All of this journey or at least some parts that contain the discoveries would be filmed for anyone to have a closer look and to even inspire the future generations!

Map Of Black Sea Source: Wikipedia Author: Norman Einstein Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

They have achieved and managed to discover around 65 shipwrecks dating back to Greek,Roman and Byzantine era as well as artifacts that even dating back to the Bronze Age. Note that aside these discoveries which have a clear substance, they also came closer or found out how the rise or decline of the sea level had an impact in the civilizations.

The Greek Shipwreck Discovery

If you remember i wrote that that "a few days ago the Shipwreck confirmed" meaning that they have discovered it earlier (in 2017 to be exact) but waited patiently to be sure and to find out if it is indeed the oldest intact shipwreck.........it is!

The ships lies in about 2km of deep water and is 23 meters long. The scientists were astonished and extremely surprised when they find it intact as we are talking about a trading ship that is 2.400 years old! A ship like that as i said was supposed to be a trading ship and had around 15-25 crew members. What for me is more amazing though is that there are rumors that this might be the legendary Odysseus ship! The "evidence" that support this are a vase that is held at the British Museum that shows Odysseus in a similar like that ship sailing!

 Odysseus and the Sirens Source: commons.wikipedia.org Author: Jastrow Licence: Public Domain

Now to another big question

How the Hell It Remained Intact After All These Years?

The key lies in Black Sea and more specifically to the oxygen free (anoxic water) water and that's why it is considered as an under water Museum. Also the Black Sea receives fresh water for rives and rainfall and only get water from Mediterranean through Bosporus and Dardanelles. Thus only the surface water can support life while the deep is oxygen free. As a result some organism that eat wood can't survive there and the ships remain intact (if you think a bit most of the older ships were made of wood so these organisms completely destroyed them!)  

sources
http://blackseamap.com/
https://www.livescience.com/63899-oldest-intact-shipwreck-found.html
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=399666&partId=1
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45951132
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2018/10/oldest-intact-shipwreck-found.page