Kizilburun Project Blog

After a successful journey to Bodrum by the drums onboard Mayis 19 and a couple days of wrap on site, the 2011 season at Kizilburun has begun to draw to a close. The drums were unloaded at the port and transferred to INA headquarters on the 21^st, where they are now resting behind the conservation lab. Once again we relied on help from the INA staff to ensure the safe delivery of these large but important artifacts.

The day after the crane boat left we took a much needed day off, which also gave Donny and Dave an opportunity to depart for their homes in the Texas and Pennsylvania. The following day we finished the archaeological work on site, mapping and then raising three anchor collars and a partial Rhodian amphora. This work took a whole day of diving, and with predictions of incoming storms we were left with potentially just one more diving day on the site. This meant it was time to wrap up, raising the safety tanks, phone booth, and archaeological tools from the sea floor yesterday.

Goodbye Kizilburun!

Today we packed up the remaining supplies on Virazon and in camp, and left Kizilburun for the last time this afternoon heading for Alacata. Now as we sit on the bow of Virazon with drinks in hand we can look back on the successful 2011 field season and forward to the study season that will take place over the rest of the summer.

Happy belated Father’s Day! It was indeed a happy day for the team at Kizilburun, as all six remaining drums were successfully raised from the sea bed in just one day. Yesterday our Turkish co-director Harun had to return to work in Izmir, but not before we grabbed another group photo, this time from the stern of Virazon while docked at camp. We’d like to thank Harun again for his contribution to the team this year, and hope to see him again soon!

After another day of preparations yesterday, though, today was the day we’ve all been waiting for! The day started early with the arrival in camp of Mayis 19 at 5:45.  Captain Eray came aboard and asked to see photographs of the rigged drums.  At that time we learned that the lifting of each drum would be accomplished using a crane and not a winch, meaning that it would take up to 30 minutes per drum since each would have to be lifted in increments only as large as the crane could be raised.

Despite a few technical problems in the morning, we did manage to get six successful dives in before all the sunlight was lost. Then as the sun set over the cape we bid our 6 column drums a fond au revoir.  Bodrum Museum representative Ibrahim took Harun’s video camera with him to record the trip, which will end tomorrow morning in Bodrum.

With news of an incoming storm, the Virazon headed for Telekom Bay and we all enjoyed a late dinner of grilled vegetables, fries, and garlic yogurt with a few beers, as we toasted our collective success.

Progress in the Drum Garden continued through this week and now all the drums have been successfully flipped and rigged! The solution the team came up with for Drum three was to flip it twice more, as we got the hang of the new rigging and filling system. This success meant that we could call Captain Eray of the crane boat, who expects to arrive late tomorrow to begin the drum lifting process.

A flipping success!

The last drum falls into place...

... and our fearless leader checks it off the list!

We even got a chance to do a little archaeology on site the last few days, uncovering several more anchor components associated with the shipwreck and doing an analysis of the pottery scattered around the wreck site. It seems to be primarily from later AD 4^th and 8^th century shipwrecks, but the search continues for any remaining Kizilburun material.

A lead anchor collar

Some of the Byzantine pottery scatter

Back in camp, Donny and Dave started dismantling the galley with a few choice swings of the hammer, while the rest of us encouraged them with drinks in hand.  We toasted each other and the late Claude Duthuit, without whom none of the INA equipment and infrastructure we rely on every day would exist.

After the Turkish parliamentary elections last weekend we got right back to work, flipping Drum 8 on just our second day back at the site. We’ve also rigged Drum 2 and filled the first balloon to almost full, so hopefully a second balloon will send this drum over tomorrow in the morning dives. Wiggling the strap under Drum 3 continues, but at a slow pace despite the use of the jack to raise one edge of the drum a few inches.

Drum 1 sits on the sea floor rigged and ready to go

This series of images show what the team sees from the surface when a drum is successfully flipped!

The beginning of the week also brought the arrival of our second American hyperbaric physician, Dave Lambert. He and Matthew were here together for two days while Dave got used to the routine. His experience as a Navy and Marine doctor is certainly helping, though, as he has already carved himself an important place among the crew. Tonight Matthew is set to begin the journey home on Huseyin’s boat, but not before we took a group photo with the Explorer’s Club flag which he brought to wave over this excavation. His contributions of both time and experience have been an important part of the success of this season of excavation.

The two doctors, Matthew Partrick and Dave Lambert, on the bow of Virazon

The team gathers for a group picture with the Explorer's Club flag

We also look forward tonight to a full lunar eclipse which should be visible from the site if the clouds that came in this evening clear up!

Yesterday we succeeded in flipping the largest of the 6 drums left on site, but when the Lift-All lifting sling snagged on a large chunk of concretion attached to the drum wall, the sling was torn.  Still, Orkan’s system worked beautifully and we were able to rig drum 8 before the lodos winds began to blow in the early evening.  For safety’s sake, we relocated the Virazon to Telekom Bay and overnighted there.  Today the seas are quite rough, with waves 1.5 m high and a strong wind.

I had hoped that the weather might subside long enough to permit us an afternoon dive, but in the end it seemed unsafe.  So we departed for a two-day weekend, necessitated by the Turkish parliamentary elections on Sunday.  Next week will be our second full week of dives at Kizilburun and we still have 4 column drums to prepare before the crane boat comes to pick them up and take them back to Bodrum, so stay tuned!!

Today we flipped our first drum, but it didn’t go as smoothly as we had planned. It took 3 dives to fill both balloons and in the end, apparently because of the loose (but deep) sand underneath, the drum became stuck at a 60 degree angle.  So, we deflated the balloons and were able to complete the task by adding a second sling and balloon that effectively pulled the buried portion of the drum out of the sand; almost akin to ‘sweeping’ it’s feet out from under!  But somewhere in the process one of the lifting straps was pushed out of the way, meaning that we now have to wiggle the strap through the sand and into place underneath the 6-ton drum.  Orkan had a great idea, however, which is to use our ratchet straps to fasten the lifting straps onto the exposed surface of each drum BEFORE we flip it, thus avoiding the possibility that the lifting straps will be ‘pushed’ out of the way by the flipping process.

This morning we started the day with a safety and orientation drill around the recompression chamber housed aboard the Virazon. We are extremely fortunate to have three chamber operators on board (Murat, Orkan, and Sheila) as well as a hyperbaric physician, Matthew Partrick.  Matthew also gave us an overview of the various medical supplies on board, including an AED which he was able to procure at no cost to the project.

On the seabed, we completed the installation of the safety tanks, telephone booth, and airlift hose, which will provide the compressed air to fill the giant lift balloons that we will use to ‘flip’ each 6-ton marble column drum 180 degrees into a ‘basket’ of lifting straps. But first we need to unwrap each of the 6 drums from the protective nylon sheet that we applied in 2009 to prevent the accumulation of more sea growth.

Departing from Izmir early in the morning, Emre, Donny, and Debbie pay a visit to the mayor (kaymakam) in nearby Urla.  Inasmuch as Friday is market day in Urla we stop by the Pazar long enough to get Donny some sandals, and Donny himself was pleased to discover that these sandals had been monogrammed especially for him!  We reach the Virazon after lunch, and with our Turkish commissioner and project director now on site, we begin the process of acclimation dives.  The water is cold, but the sun is strong and it feels good to be back after a one-year hiatus!

The Virazon arrives at Kizilburun late morning, and all are surprised to find that the central galley building constructed by Robin Piercy in 2005 is still standing!  Our small team continues to grow with the arrival in Izmir of hyperbaric physician Matthew Partrick and archaeologist Kristine Trego.  Project Director Donny Hamilton is delayed unexpectedly but should arrive Thursday evening.

Most of the team, including our 2011 Turkish commissioner Emre Savas of the Bodrum Museum, leaves Yalıkavak aboard Virazon at 0630 in choppy seas, and are accompanied by dolphins along the voyage.  The Virazon overnights in Kuşadası, while a truck loaded in Bodrum with various other equipment including the oxygen bottles we will need for decompression, departs for Zeytineli, a small fishing harbor that is the nearest point of departure for anyone trying to reach Kizilburun by road.