The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey NEH Collaborat

Home , Agia Galini, Gortyn, Kaloi Limenes, Messara Plain, Plakias, Tympaki

Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey

NEH Collaborative Research Grant Proposal November 2017

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World Institute of Nautical Archaeology Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities

Karl Krusell Brown University

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey

This proposal seeks to gain funding for a major three-year collaborative research project aimed at characterizing the maritime landscapes of southern Crete from the island’s earliest human presence to the expulsion of the Ottomans at the very end of the 19th century CE. The maritime significance of Crete was already established in Greek oral tradition by the time the Iliad and Odyssey were first written down sometime in the 8th century BCE. Clues about the island’s seafaring history derived from such sources as Bronze Age wall paintings and New Testament scripture have provided the basis for much scholarly speculation, but ultimately leave many questions about the long-term development of maritime culture on the island unanswered. A recent debate among Mediterranean archaeologists was prompted by the discovery of lithic artifacts in southern Crete dated to the Paleolithic, which have the potential to push back the earliest human presence on Crete, as well as the earliest demonstrable hominin sea-crossings in the Mediterranean, to around 130,000 years ago. The project team will conduct an underwater survey of the Gulf of Messara, collecting data through both diver reconnaissance and remote sensing in order to ascertain the long-term history of social complexity, resource exploitation, and island connectivity. Located on the Gulf of Messara, which is located at the western edge of the Messara Plain in the center of Crete’s southern coast, are the Roman port of Matala, the Minoan harbor town of Kommos, and the site of Plakias where the aforementioned lithics tentatively dated to the Middle Paleolithic were discovered. Interdisciplinary land-based surveys conducted in the Messara Plain provide a strong basis of interpretation for the social dynamics of the region. The proposed underwater survey, through simultaneous collection of cultural and environmental data, will help clarify processes of colonization and trade, as well as provide a fuller picture of maritime landscapes as they existed in different periods. This project will bring together scholars and professionals from the United States, Turkey, Greece, Canada, and Israel, and will involve collaboration between the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, and the Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology and the Ancient World located at Brown University. Using INA’s newly built Virazon II, the first vessel anywhere in the world to be classed as an Archaeological Research Vessel, the team will collect data of various types, including multibeam sonar data, bathymetry, sub-bottom profiles, and core samples. Our research will contribute to the humanities by investigating the variety of human responses over time to a changing landscape. In addition to producing environmental and archaeological data to that effect, this project will also help contextualize the conception of place in the past by providing possible explanations for depictions in literature of the Gulf of Messara as a hazardous waypoint. The dissemination of our results will target both professionals and the public using both digital and print media. We will share our work with colleagues around the world at various conferences and symposia, submit articles for publication to top peer-reviewed journals, and produce video documentation of our progress over the course of all three field seasons.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey

Cover Sheet ...... i Statement of Significance and Impact ...... ii

Table of Contents ...... iii

List of Participants ...... iv

Project Narrative

Substance and Context

Justification ...... 1

Research Questions ...... 5

The Survey Area ...... 8

Contributions of the Humanities ...... 11

Collaborators ...... 12

Methods ...... 15

Work Plan ...... 18

Final Products and Dissemination ...... 18

Project Budget

Budget Form ...... 20

Budget Justification ...... 23

Appendices

Appendix A: Bibliography ...... 26

Appendix B: Permitting Procedures ...... 29

Appendix C: Figures...... 30

iii

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Project Director

Krusell, Karl Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University Project Co-PI

Köyağasıoğlu, Orkan Bodrum Research Center, Institute of Nautical Archaeology Project Co-PI

Collaborators

Goodman, Beverly University of Haifa Geoarchaeological Specialist

Lawall, Mark University of Manitoba; American School of Classical Studies at Athens Ceramics Specialist

Littlefield, John Bodrum Research Center, Institute of Nautical Archaeology Diving Safety Officer, Archaeological Consultant

Theodoulou, Theotokis Non-Independent Office of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Crete Remote Sensing Specialist, Archaeological Consultant

Additional Team Members

Gül, Zafer Bodrum Research Center, Institute of Nautical Archaeology Virazon II Captain

Snowden-Smith, Susannah Freelance professional Photographer and Videographer

PROJECT NARRATIVE Maritime Landscapes of Southern Crete from the Paleolithic to Modern Times: The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey

Substance and Context

Justification

Crete, the largest of the Greek islands, separates the Aegean and Libyan Seas, and is in many respects like a miniature continent (Fig. 1). This relatively small land mass contains the full range of Mediterranean topography, including snow-capped mountains, sandy beaches, fertile plains, and arid valleys. Crete’s placement within the Mediterranean has led to its role as a cultural crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa for at least the past several millennia. The island also lies at the crossroads of history and myth. When Sir Arthur Evans discovered the oldest known European civilization at the turn of the 20th century, he named the people and their culture Minoan after the legendary king Minos of Crete. The ancient historian Thucydides, writing in the 5th century BCE, reported that Minos, who is mentioned in the Homeric epics (Il.

13.450; Od. 11.321), established the first navy, extinguished piracy in the Aegean, and colonized the Cyclades (Thuc. 1.4).

Though this notion of Minoan thalassocracy (i.e. naval supremacy) is certainly exaggerated, evidence exists that the Minoans were trading goods and exchanging skilled craftsmen with the Egyptians,1 and that they were colonizing or at least exporting their cultural traditions and artistic conventions to Thera and other Cycladic islands.2 Our only evidence for

1 Wachsmann 1987; Bietak et al. 2007. 2 Doumas 1992.

Minoan ships survives in the form of wall frescoes, boat models,3 and the monumental ship

sheds at Kommos.4 The discovery of a Minoan shipwreck has long been the “holy grail” for scholars like Shelley Wachsmann of Texas A&M University,5 who directed the Danaos

Deepwater Survey Project (2007–2009) which searched along a hypothesized trade route

between Crete and Egypt.6 The Danaos Project failed to yield any Minoan artifacts, but the team

recorded numerous ceramic vessels on the seabed, both in isolation and as part of supposed trails

of jettisoned cargo. While this project was nominally diachronic, its primary goal was to look for

evidence of contacts between Crete and Egypt during the Bronze Age, and so it resembled more

of a “search” than a “survey.”7

A more recent survey known simply as the Crete Underwater Survey was much more

committed to a diachronic research design. It was run by the Woods Hole Oceanographic

Institute (WHOI) and surveyed in different areas along the northern and western coasts of Crete,

between the city of Heraklion and the island of Dia (2011), and between western Crete and the

island of Antikythera (2013). In 2011 alone they discovered eight shipwrecks (five ancient and

three modern) as well as three anchorages.8 The former survey area was chosen for three

principal reasons: 1) the area of Heraklion had served as the capital of Crete for most of the past

four millennia, except for when it was temporarily moved to Gortyn in the south during the

Roman period, 2) the area lacked a naturally protected bay and was thus continuously exposed to

north winds, and 3) archaeological material had been found in the area of Dia since an expedition

3 Wachsmann 1998, 104–5. 4 Shaw and Shaw 2006. 5 Marchant 2012, 426. 6 Wachsmann et al. 2009. 7 Søreide 2011, 101. 8 Theodoulou et al. 2011.

2 in 1976 by Jacques Cousteau, suggesting that a systematic survey would prove fruitful. Our survey area has been chosen for similar reasons:

1) The Gulf of Messara is home to known harbor sites from different periods. Under

the Romans, Gortyn became the capitol of the joint province Creta et Cyrenaica, and

Matala became its port, supplying Rome with grain grown in the Messara plain. The

nearby site of Kommos, which dates to the Bronze Age, is home to monumental ship

sheds which would have been used to keep ships protected when not in use. The harbor

town of Kommos was part of the so-called Great Minoan Triangle in south central Crete,

which also included the palatial complex at Phaistos and the elite villa at Ayia Triada

(Fig. 2).

2) The sailing conditions in the Gulf of Messara can be hazardous. The Gulf of Messara

has served as the setting for suspenseful seafaring narratives in at least two works of

ancient literature, including Book 3 of the Odyssey, in which half of Menelaos’ fleet is

broken up against the headland near Phaistos by a strong south wind (Od. 3.285-300),

and chapter 27 of Acts of the Apostles, in which the ship carrying Paul was blown off

course by a northeast hurricane wind (Gk. typhonikos, cf. “typhoon”) to the island of

Gavdos while sailing through the Gulf of Messara from Kaloi Limenes (the so-called

“Fair Havens”) to the ancient Cretan port town of Phoenix (Acts 27.8-16). On the other

hand, one ancient source suggests that the route along the south coast of Crete was

preferable to a northern route through the Sea of Crete (Lucien Nav. 9), suggesting that

the area was heavily trafficked. Joseph Shaw, who served as the principal investigator of

the Kommos excavations for several decades, suspected that “surely there are deepwater

wrecks there that would more than repay investigation, of ships that were beating up

against the wind, attempting to reach the Matala or Kommos harbors, but were crushed

against projecting cliffs.”9

3) Additional material evidence points to diverse maritime activities in the area. In

1955, the British School recorded a Roman period shipwreck near the bay of Ayia Galini

which had contained a cargo of bronze statuary.10 More wrecks of this type, as Shaw

rightly suspected, could be found in the deeper waters off the Gulf of Messara if surveyed

with the appropriate methods and tools. But in recent years discussions about the

maritime history of Crete have been dominated by the possibility of hominin dispersals

by sea during the Lower Paleolithic and the characterization of different degrees of island

colonization.11 This discussion has largely been prompted by the discovery of stone tools

from Plakias and Loutro, both sites on the southwest coast of Crete, which possibly date

to the Middle Paleolithic or approximately 130 kya.12 Aside from these recent

discoveries, the earliest verified evidence for a human presence on Crete comes from the

aceramic Neolithic strata at Knossos, which date to the 7th millennium BCE.13 Skeptics

have pointed out that the Paleolithic dates for the lithics from Plakias are extrapolated

from geologic deposits, and that the quartz from which the tools are made is difficult to

evaluate because it does not flake as cleanly as chert, flint, or obsidian. The only way to

advance this dialogue is through further study, particularly of the coastal and underwater

landscape off southern Crete.

9 Shaw 2006, 59. 10 Leatham and Hood 1958/59, 278–280. 11 Runnels 2014; Leppard 2014. 12 Mortensen 2008; Strasser et al. 2010; Strasser et al. 2011. 13 Broodbank 2008; Broodbank and Strasser 1991.

Previous land-based archaeological surveys in the Messara region, particularly in the hinterlands of Kommos and Phaistos, have gone a long way toward characterizing the maritime aspects of cultural landscapes.14 But no matter the strength of the data generated by land-based

survey and excavation, the picture of the maritime landscape is incomplete without systematic

survey data of the underwater environment. The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey aims to

shed light on the maritime aspects of social complexity in south central Crete from as far back as

the Paleolithic to the modern period.

Research Questions

This project will employ advanced remote sensing and imaging technologies to

corroborate previous library and museum research and to inform future studies and fieldwork. In

terms of data collection, the goals of the project are to record the most detailed environmental

data to date of the survey zone, including bathymetry and sub-bottom stratigraphy, and to locate

and map all discernable cultural material on the seabed, including shipwrecks, cargoes, and

associated artifacts. Our team will follow a research plan designed to address the following

questions about the survey zone:

1) How has the long-term geological history of the Gulf of Messara affected human

activities in the area? The Gulf of Messara is a seismically active area and has been

throughout antiquity. Subduction of the Africa plate beneath the relatively small Aegean

Sea plate results in shallow-focus earthquakes along the Hellenic arc plate boundary.

Historical records and land excavations have determined that two 7.2 magnitude

earthquakes centered near Crete occurred in 365 CE and 1303 CE.15 Previous research

14 Blackman and Branigan 1975, 1977; Hope Simpson et al. 1995; Watrous et al. 2004. 15 Fytikas and Vougioukalakis 2005.

has shown that the western half of the island exhibits between 2–9 m of coastal uplift,

while the eastern half exhibits varied levels of subsidence.16 However, the effects of

seismic activity and sea-level rise are less clear on the south-central coasts of Crete. Crete

has been a “true” island—i.e. separated from the continental mainland—since the

Messenian Salinity Crisis between 5.96–5.33 mya, when the Strait of Gibraltar

reopened.17 Assuming that the material from Plakias indeed dates to the Paleolithic,

researchers much attempt to determine the nature of this demonstrated human presence,

i.e. whether it represents maritime activity that was purposeful, organized, and planned or

seasonal, episodic, or even accidental. The geological data collected during the proposed

survey will be used to reconstruct the ancient coastlines and foreshore environment,

including sources of fresh water. In addition to elucidating the relationship between

ancient peoples and their environments, these newly-collected geological data will also

refine our understanding of the limits of said data. For instance, seabed sedimentation

rates are not clearly known for the Gulf of Messara, into which two rivers—the Platis and

the Ieropotamos—empty their contents. For these reasons, the ancient seabed may not be

exposed enough to yield the archaeological information we seek. It is our hope that the

sub-bottom profiler data will help determine how sedimentation and seismic activity have

shaped the seafloor over time, and thus inform future studies, both geological and

archaeological, of this region.

16 Pirazzoli et al. 1982; Flemming 1978. 17 Krijgsman et al. 1999.

2) Was does the distribution of cultural material below the surface of the Gulf of

Messara suggest about ancient seafaring and trade, and how does it relate to other

underwater surveys in the Mediterranean? Two famous literary characters, Menelaos

and Paul, experienced disaster or near-disaster at sea here, suggesting that the Gulf of

Messara was considered treacherous for sailing ships, at least for part of the year. Can we

substantiate this reputation with evidence of shipwrecks or jettisoned cargo? Or is the

hazardous nature of the Gulf as depicted a literary invention, and the common setting for

these narratives a coincidence? It is possible that sedimentation and tectonic shifts of the

seabed will mask the ancient seafloor to such an extent that we cannot make a

determination. Based on the literary sources and nearby land excavations, we expect to

find the greatest amount of material culture from the Roman occupation of Crete. But to

what extent will the various ancient populations of Crete—Minoans, Greeks, Romans,

Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians, and Ottomans—be represented on the seafloor and what

will that data reveal about the details of social complexity and cultural contact? What

ancient trade networks are discernable from the assemblages? How does the commercial

importance of Crete’s southern coast change through time?

3) Does the underwater cultural material from the Gulf of Messara reinforce,

contradict, or otherwise complicate the narratives derived from historical sources

and land-based archaeological survey and excavation? At least three pedestrian field

surveys have taken place in the coastal areas of Phaistos, Kommos, Matala, and Kaloi

Limenes. The area south of Matala and directly west of Kaloi Limenes was surveyed

between 1971 and 1972 by David Blackman and Keith Branigan.18 The Kommos Survey,

18 Blackman and Branigan 1975, 1977.

which took place between 1977 and 1979, was associated with the excavation of the

Minoan harbor town of Kommos by Joseph and Maria Shaw.19 Most recently, the

Western Messara Project undertook an interdisciplinary regional field survey directed by

L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou between 1984 and 1987.20 The Gulf of

Messara Underwater Survey aims to advance these former studies by shedding light on

the maritime aspects of social complexity in south central Crete from as far back as the

Paleolithic to the modern period.

The Survey Area

The Gulf of Messara is formed by a large indentation in the middle of Crete’s southern

coast, bounded to the east by the north-south terminus of the Messara Plain and to the north by

the east-west coastline of the Rethymno regional unit. To its west and south the Gulf opens up to

the Libyan Sea. Moving from east to west along the southern coast of Crete, the shoreline makes

a sharp right turn at Cape Lithinos and continues on a roughly north-south axis for about 18 km

until, at the small coastal community of Kokkinos Pyrgos, it turns left and resumes its east-west

axis until it reaches the small island of Elafonisi in the southwest corner of Crete and turns right

again, rounding the western coast of Crete. The eastern boundary of the Gulf of Messara is where

the north-west coast of the western Messara plain meets the Libyan Sea and lies approximately

along latitude 24°10’ E. This stretch of land, which contains steep cliffs in the south, consists

mostly of open beaches. The Gulf’s northern boundary is formed by the east-west southern coastline of the Rethymno regional unit, from Kokkinos Pyrgos to Agios Pavlos. Thus, the Gulf of Messara forms a rough right angle. Situated in the middle of the Gulf’s western boundary are

19 Hope Simpson et al. 1995. 20 Watrous et al. 2004.

8 the uninhabited twin islands known collectively as Paximadia. Ancient ships travelling from the eastern Mediterranean (Egypt or the Levant) to the Peloponnese, Sicily, Italy, or beyond would have potentially sailed right past the Gulf of Messara, as did the ship that was carrying Paul from

Jerusalem to Rome (Acts 27). The entire Gulf comprises about 220 km2, which we propose to map and survey in our first season.

Seafloor Terrain

The waters remain relatively shallow some distance from the shore, but eventually drop past 50 m, with the result that the deepest area of the gulf is the southwestern corner of the proposed survey zone, at about 350 m (Figs. 3 & 4). The topography is gradual and homogenous, making this area suitable for a sonar survey (Figs. 5 & 6). The drop off is much steeper in the southernmost portion of the survey area.

Seafloor Sediment

Two Cretan rivers empty their waters into the Gulf of Messara. The Platis River flows south from Mount Kedros and exits at the beach in Agia Galini, and the Ieropotamos River waters the Messara Plain before exiting near the military airport of Tympaki at the eastern edge of the Gulf. While sediment studies have been done on the riverbeds of the Messara basin and on the shallower waters of the Gulf of Messara,21 little is known about the nature of seafloor sediments in the middle of the Gulf. The exact makeup of sediments will likely vary within the survey zone, but we expect a combination of course conglomerate and sandstones and fine- grained fluvial sediments (sandstone and mudstone). It’s quite possible that sedimentation rates

21 Reuter and Brachert 2007.

in the Gulf are high, causing any archaeological material to be buried deeply. If such is the case,

sub-bottom profiles will help inform future approaches to these problems.

Prevailing Winds and Currents

Northwestern trade winds drive diagonal waves upon the north-south coast of the western

Messara in the summer22 and in the winter west winds pile larger waves upon the long open

beaches.23 Our literary sources tell of a south or southwest wind (notos) (Od. 3.295) and

northeastern (eurakulon) storm wind (Acts 27.14) making trouble for ancient mariners in this

area. From June to October frequent northerly gales strike the Gulf with great violence.24 These etesians or meltemi are probably what drove Paul’s ship southward in Acts of the Apostles, as he was sailing after the “fast” or Yom Kippur, which occurs in late September. These winds, which blow down from Psiloritis or Mt. Ida, only become more violent in winter. For this reason, the eastern coast of the Gulf of Messara is not good for wintering, which is likely why the inhabitants of Kommos built ship sheds far back from the shore to accommodate their vessels during the “non-sailing” months.25 This is also why the area immediately south of the Gulf of

Messara, known appropriately as Kaloi Limenes or Fair Havens (lit. “good harbors”), is a more suitable anchorage for ships both ancient and modern. This area experiences moderate and steady breezes, while the Gulf hosts violent gales, especially in the mornings. Along the south of Crete is a west-setting current that may reach a speed of 1.5 knots off the promontories, yet the waters within the Gulf are stiller. Of greater concern than the currents are the somewhat unpredictable hurricane-like gales from the north (meltemi).

22 Casson 1995, 272. 23 Shaw 2006, 51. 24 Le Gras 1870, 160. 25 Shaw 2006, 124–125.

Surface Hazards

Violent northerly winds are even more dangerous when taken in combination with the

rocky shoreline of the southern headland from Matala to Cape Lithinos. Such were the factors

that cost Menelaos half of his fleet. While occasional offshore reefs, such as the one off Kommos which is known locally as papadoplaka (“the priest’s slab”),26 act as navigational hazards to be

avoided, they also dissipate the strength of the waves and provide shelter for anchorage along an

otherwise unprotected beach. Conducive to the goals of this project is the relative absence of

marine traffic within the Gulf of Messara. As can be seen in Fig. 4, the density clouds

representing ship traffic around Crete conveniently pass by the proposed survey zone.

Contributions to the Humanities

Our research will contribute to the humanities by investigating the variety of human

responses to a changing coastal landscape and the associated changes over time to social

networks. Our diachronic research design will produce data to reconstruct ancient coastlines and

environments, but will avoid models that privilege environmental determinism to explain cultural

change. Our data will show how the maritime landscape of south-central Crete simultaneously

shaped and was shaped by human activity. This project will also help contextualize human

conceptions of place by seeking to understand the associations past peoples made with the Gulf

of Messara, including literary depictions of the Gulf as a hazardous waypoint. Studies based on

world systems theory treat population centers such as Phaistos and Gortyn and harbor complexes

such as Kommos and Matala as “core” sites and the smaller agricultural villages surrounding

them as “peripheral” sites. Our project will extend the concept of “periphery” to the sea itself.

26 Shaw 2006, 55.

While the circumstances of deposition for cultural material found underwater often differ from those for land sites, there remains great potential in attempts to measure the maritime reach of core sites, by detecting cargoes that failed to reach their intended destinations.

Collaborators

The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey is a collaboration of the Joukowsky Institute for

Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and the

Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), headquartered at Texas A&M University in College

Station, Texas, and is to be conducted in cooperation with the Department of Underwater

Antiquities of Crete, a non-independent office of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities (a

Special Peripheral Service of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports). Apart from the 8 core team members listed below, an additional 9 supporting staff are to be recruited at a later date, for a total of 17 team members.

Project Directors

♦ Karl Krusell will serve at the co-Principal Investigator for the proposed NEH-funded

research. He is a PhD student in the Joukowksy Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient

World at Brown University, and specializes in shipwreck and harbor archaeology in the

Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. He will supervise the remote sensing survey,

mapping, and database management, a time commitment of 90 days per year for the

duration of the project.

♦ Orkan Köyağasıoğlu will serve at the other co-Principal Investigator for the proposed

NEH-funded research. He serves as a staff archaeologist for the Institute of Nautical

Archaeology, and has participated in many surveys and shipwreck excavations in Turkey,

including the projects at Tektaş Burnu, Cape Gelidonya, Yenikapı, Kızılburun, and Pabuç

Burnu. He pilots INA’s research submersible Carolyn, and serves as a crewmember

aboard Virazon II. He will supervise the diver surveys, manage shipboard logistics and

provisioning, and direct artifact conservation, a time commitment of 90 days per year for

the duration of the project.

Collaborators

♦ Beverly Goodman will serve as the project’s geoarchaeological specialist. An assistant

professor in the Department of Marine Geosciences at the Leon Charney School of

Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel, where she manages the Marine

Geoarchaeology and Micropaleontology Laboratory, her research focuses on the

reconstruction of ancient harbors, and the effects of tsunami events on coastal

environments and human societies. Dr. Goodman will take charge of collecting

environmental samples in the field, analyzing them at the laboratory at the University of

Haifa, and producing visualizations of the raw data. There will be room on the research

vessel for her to bring two graduate student assistants. Time commitment: 2 weeks per

field season and the equivalent of 4 weeks per academic year to analyze the samples and

prepare reports of the results.

♦ Mark Lawall will serve as the project’s ceramics specialist. He is a Professor of Classics

at the University of Manitoba and serves as Chair of the Managing Committee of the

American School of Classical Studies at Athens. He is an expert in ancient economic

history with a specialty in Mediterranean transport amphoras. He will assist with ceramic

identifications and dating. Time commitment: the duration of each field season and the

equivalent of 4 weeks per academic year to refine and prepare his analysis for

publication.

♦ John Littlefield will serve as the project’s diving safety officer and as an archaeological

consultant. He is a PhD candidate in the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M

University, and works as an archaeometry specialist at the Institute of Nautical

Archaeology’s Bodrum Research Center. He has extensive diving experience in the

Mediterranean and is a certified scuba instructor. He will conduct certification and diving

insurance compliance checks, manage the diving logs and equipment inventory, and

oversee the maintenance of the air compressors and recompression chamber. Time

commitment: the duration of each field season and the equivalent of 2 weeks per year to

prepare and conclude each field season. There will be room on the vessel for him to

recruit three archaeological divers to serve for the duration of each field season.

♦ Theotokis Theodoulou will serve as the project’s remote sensing specialist and as an

archaeological consultant. He heads the Non-Independent Office at Crete for the Greek

Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. He has extensive experience in underwater

archaeology, and has previously worked on successful underwater surveys off the coast

of Crete. He will direct the deployment of remote sensing equipment and associated data

collection, as well as advise on various archaeological and scientific matters. Time

commitment: the duration of each field season and the equivalent of 4 weeks per year to

process data, produce visualizations, and prepare data for publication. There will be room

on the research vessel for him to bring one colleague to participate for the duration of

each field season.

Additional Team Members

♦ Zafer Gül will serve as the captain of our research vessel, Virazon II. He previously

served as captain of the original Virazon for over a decade. His duties will include

piloting the vessel, overseeing engine and systems maintenance, and managing radio

communications and berthing logistics. He will hire three additional crewmembers per

year, including a cook, to serve for the duration of the field season. Time commitment:

the duration of each field season and the equivalent of 2 week per year for hiring

additional crewmembers, making preparations for departure, and concluding each

season’s expedition.

♦ Susannah Snowden-Smith will serve as the project’s photographer and videographer.

She has extensive experience with underwater photography and has served previously as

a photographer for several of INA’s past shipwreck excavations. In addition to artifact

photos, she will document the diver surveys and daily operations aboard the research

vessel. Time commitment: the duration of each field season as well as the equivalent of 2

weeks per year to process, edit, and catalogue photographs and footage.

Methods

For all three field seasons, the project’s base of operations will be Virazon II, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology’s recently built 25 m research vessel, which is the first ship anywhere in the world to be classed as an Archaeological Research Vessel (Fig. 5). The ship is equipped with bottom-scan sonar and a 5-ton A-frame for lifting INA’s 2-person submersible Carolyn. It also houses a recompression chamber and high- and low-pressure compressors. The ship has a cruising speed of 10 knots, powered by twin 425 HP engines. It has space to accommodate 19

crewmembers, researchers, and passengers, with 16 bunk beds in the main cabin on the lower

deck, a two-person VIP cabin, and a captain’s cabin.

The vessel’s home port is Yalikavak Marina, just west of Bodrum. The team will meet in

Bodrum at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology’s research center, and will stay at the

dormitories there as the team prepares for departure. There is currently no permanent crew

assigned to the vessel, so temporary crew members will be hired each season. Family, friends,

and colleagues will be about to monitor our progress and track the vessel’s latest position by

following this web link.

The Gulf of Messara Underwater Survey will focus on one area per field season. In the

first field season, we will focus on the northern coast of the Gulf from Kokkinos Pyrgos to Agios

Pavlos (Zone 1). The survey zone will be approximately 16 km long and 2.5 km wide, for a total

area of about 40 km2. In the second season, we will focus of the eastern coast of the Gulf from

Kokkinos Pyrgos to Agiofarago (Zone 2), with a survey zone approximately the same 40 km2 size. In the third season, we will focus on the Paximadia islands in the southwest of the Gulf

(Zone 3). The survey zone will include the first 1.5 km of water surrounding the islands, an area

of about 20 km2. In total, the project team will collect detailed, high-resolution data for about

100 km2 of sea across three field seasons.

The survey team will collect bathymetric data using Virazon II’s hull-mounted multi-

beam sonar system. At the same time, we will tow INA’s magnetometer and sub-bottom profiler

behind the vessel. In the final season, in addition to surveying around the Paximadia islands, we

will deploy a SeaBED-class AUV to investigate and image the targets defined in previous

seasons.27 This type of AUV consists of a positively buoyant upper hull and a negatively buoyant

lower hull connected by aluminum spars, a design that provides enhanced stability for low-speed

photographic and acoustic bathymetric surveys a few meters above the seafloor. The SeaBED

AUVs are equipped with an Imagenex Delta-T imaging sonar for bathymetric capture, HDR

(High Dynamic Range) Prosilica cameras, a SeaBird CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, and

Depth) sensor for measuring salinity and water temperature, and an EdgeTech 2200 M sub-

bottom profiler, which will use a CHIRP signal in the 4–24 kHz range to penetrate several dozen

meters into the seabed for stratigraphic data.

Across all three seasons, we will also run diver surveys nearer to the coast to investigate

areas of interest based on archival and historical research, as well as interviews with local

fisherman and divers. Remote sensing targets within the safe diving zone may also be

groundtruthed by divers before the AUV is deployed. Some conservation measures will be required if targeted collection is deemed necessary, though the default heritage preservation approach for this project will be to leave artifacts in situ. Beverly Goodman and her two graduate students will collect about 6 core samples from the seabed each field season using their own equipment, and will transport them back to the University of Haifa for analysis. With our combined data sets, we will be able to reconstruct the ancient shorelines of the Gulf of Messara and the Paximadia islands, as well as quantify and qualify the cultural material found underwater in the survey zones.

27 See Foley et al. 2009 for more information of the SeaBED AUVs.

Work Plan

Summer Fieldwork (July) Academic Year Labwork Dissemination

Year 1 (June 2019 – ♦ Remote sensing survey ♦ Core sample analysis ♦ Write field report November 2019) of Zone 1 ♦ Remote sensing data (August) ♦ Diver survey of Zone 1 processing ♦ Post footage from first ♦ Core sampling in Zone ♦ field season online 1 (October) Year 1 (December 2019 – ♦ Data management ♦ Conference May 2020) ♦ Artifact conservation presentation at SHA (?) (January) ♦ Journal article on survey methodology aboard Virazon II (April) Year 2 (June 2020 – ♦ Remote sensing survey ♦ Core sample analysis ♦ Write field report November 2020) of Zone 2 ♦ Remote sensing data (August) ♦ Diver survey of Zone 2 processing ♦ Post footage from ♦ Core sampling in Zone second field season 2 online (October) Year 2 (December 2020 – ♦ Data management ♦ Conference May 2021) ♦ Artifact conservation presentation at AIA (?) (January) ♦ Journal article on results of diver surveys (April) Year 3 (June 2021 – ♦ Remote sensing survey ♦ Core sample analysis ♦ Write field report November 2021) of Zone 3 ♦ Remote sensing data (August) ♦ Diver survey of Zone 3 processing ♦ Post footage from third ♦ Core sampling in Zone field season online 3 (October) ♦ AUV groundtruthing in Zone’s 1, 2, and 3 Year 3 (December 2021 – ♦ Data management ♦ Journal article on May 2022) ♦ Artifact conservation geoarchaeological (?) results (January) ♦ Journal article on project summary (April)

Final Products and Dissemination

The dissemination of our results will target both professionals and the public using both digital and print media. Preliminary results of the survey will be reported to the Ephorate of

Underwater Antiquities and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology within six weeks of the end of the field season. The project’s results will be shared with colleagues around the world at various conferences and symposia. After the third season of survey, final results will be submitted for publication to top peer-reviewed journals such as the International Journal of Nautical

Archaeology, Hesperia, and the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology. Digitally captured photographs and footage with be used to produce an in-house documentary to be uploaded and made available for free on our project website.

OMB No 3136-0134 Budget Form Expires 6/30/2018 Applicant Institution: Brown University Project Director: Karl Krusell click for Budget Instructions Project Grant Period: 06/01/2019 through 05/31/2022 Computational Details/Notes (notes) Year 1 (notes) Year 2 (notes) Year 3 Project Total 06/01/2019- 06/01/2020- 06/01/2021- 05/31/2020 05/31/2021 05/31/2022 1. Salaries & Wages Academic Year Salary: Project Director, Karl Krusell $30,000 25% $7,500 % $7,500 % $7,500 $22,500 Co-PI, Orkan Köyağasıoğlu Salary: $43,500 25% $10,875 $10,875 $10,875 $32,625 Virazon II Captain, Zafer Gül Salary: $47,500 12% $5,700 $5,700 $5,700 $17,100 Virazon II crewmembers [3] $788/week [3] 100% $9,456 % $9,456 % $9,456 $28,368 Photographer, Susannah Avergae annual income: Snowden-Smith $39,000 12% $4,680 % $4,680 % $4,680 $14,040

2. Fringe Benefits Krusell 31% $2,325 $2,325 $2,325 $6,975 Köyağasıoğlu 12% $1,305 $1,305 $1,305 $3,915 Gül 36% $2,052 $2,052 $2,052 $6,156

3. Consultant Fees Geoarchaeological Specialist, Analysis of core samples. Beverly Goodman Fee: $1000/week 4 weeks $4,000 $4,000 $4,000 $12,000 Processing and preparation of remote Remote Sensing Specialist, sensing date. Fee: Theotokis Thedoulou $1000/week 4 weeks $4,000 $4,000 $4,000 $12,000

4. Travel

20 Roundtrip airfare and excess baggage fees for Karl Krusell Flight from Boston to (co-PI) Bodrum $1,700 $1,700 $1,700 $5,100 Roundtrip airfare for Mark Flight from Winnipeg to Lawall (ceramics specialist) Bodrum $1,800 $1,800 $1,800 $5,400 Roundtrip airfare and excess baggage fees for Susannah Snowden-Smith Flight from Grand (photographer) Cayman to Bodrum $2,200 $2,200 $2,200 $6,600 Roundtrip airfare and excess baggage fees for Beverly Goodman (geoarchaeological Flight from Haifa to specialist) Bodrum $400 $400 $400 $1,200

5. Supplies & Materials Fuel for research vessel, air $5/gallon @ 360 gallons compressors, and generators per day $54,000 $54,000 $54,000 $162,000 Project computers $1200 [2] $2,400 $2,400 External hard drives 2 TB [3] @ $100 $300 $300 Storage bins, cleaning brushes, plastic bags, Conservation materials acetate labels $250 $250

6.Services International mobile data x 3 (Krusell, Lawall, Snowden- Smith) 4 weeks [2], 8 weeks [1] $400 $400 $400 $1,200 AUV rental and remote technical support 4 weeks $16,361 $16,361 Docking fees $49/day $1,470 $1,470 $1,470 $4,410

7. Other Costs

21 Food for meals cooked onboard daily ($10 per day/per person @ 17 Food people) $5,100 $5,100 $5,100 $15,300

8. Total Direct Costs Per Year $121,913 $118,963 $135,324 $376,200

9. Total Indirect Costs Per Year $0 $0 $0 $0

10. Total Project Costs (Direct and Indirect costs for entire project) $376,200

11. Project Funding a. Requested from NEH Outright: $250,000 Federal Matching Funds: $0 TOTAL REQUESTED FROM NEH: $250,000

b. Cost Sharing Applicant's Contributions: $1,200 Third-Party Contributions: $125,000 Project Income: $0 Other Federal Agencies: $0 TOTAL COST SHARING: $126,200

12. Total Project Funding $376,200

Total Project Costs must be equal to Total Project Funding ----> ( $376,200 = $376,200 ?) Third-Party Contributions must be greater than or equal to Requested Federal Matching Funds ----> ( $125,000 ≥ $0 ?)

22 Budget Justification

1. Salaries and Wages

As co-PIs, Karl Krusell and Orkan Köyağasıoğlu will devote 25% of their annual

working hours to overseeing the work of this project. Virazon II Captain Zafer Gül will

devote 12% of his annual working hours to this project, and three crewmembers of his

choosing will be hired specifically to serve for the duration of this project at a rate of

$788 per week. Susannah Snowden-Smith is an unsalaried freelancer, whose average

annual income has been calculated on the basis of her tax returns from the past three

filing years. Total (Years 1–3): $114,633

2. Fringe Benefits

The listed fringe benefit rates have been determined by the participants’

respective employers. Gül’s benefit rate includes personal liability insurance. The three

crewmembers carry no fringe benefits, but will be covered under INA’s insurance. As a

freelancer, Snowden-Smith receives no fringe benefits. Total (Years 1–3): $17,046

3. Consultant Fees

Geoarchaeological Specialist Beverly Goodman and two graduate students will

spend two weeks in the field per season at no cost. After each field season, Goodman will

work for four weeks at a rate of $1000/week to analyze the geological samples she

collects. Remote Sensing Specialist Theotokis Thedoulou will participate in each field

season at no cost, but will work for four weeks per year at a rate of $1000/week to

process and prepare the remote sensing data. Total (Years 1–3): $24,000

4. Travel

Each field season roundtrip flights from Boston (Karl Krusell), Winnipeg (Mark

Lawall), Grand Cayman (Susannah Smith-Snowden), and Haifa (Beverly Goodman) to

Bodrum will be provided. Orkan Köyağasıoğlu, Zafer Gül, John Littlefield, and the three

Virazon II crewmembers will already be in Bodrum at the start of the project. Theotokis

Theodoulou will meet the team in Crete. The three archaeological divers recruited by

Littlefield and the two graduate students accompanying Goodman will be responsible for

securing their own funding or else covering their own travel costs. Total (Years 1–3):

$18,300

5. Supplies and Materials

Fuel for the research vessel constitutes the largest single expenditure in the project

budget. The fuel cost includes travel from Bodrum to Crete, performing survey swaths,

and powering the ventilation system, air compressors, and generators. Two project

computers will be used to run HYPACK software and four external hard drives will be

used to temporarily store and back up project data. Basic conservation materials will be

purchased in case it is deemed necessary for the archaeological dive teams to collect

artifacts. Long-term conservation of any collected artifacts will be performed by the

Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities. Total (Years 1–3): $164,950

6. Services

The three team members travelling from the outside the Mediterranean (Krusell,

Lawall, Snowden-Smith) will be provided with international mobile data plans for the

duration of their time working on the project. An AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle)

will be rented for the final field season to groundtruth targets identified from the previous

years’ data collection. This cost will include remote technical support for the duration of

the rental period. The project will reserve a dock slip for the research vessel each field

season at a rate of $50 per day. Total (Years 1–3): $21,971

7. Other Costs

The project team will sleep aboard Virazon II for the duration of the project, or

will otherwise stay at the Bodrum Research Center’s dormitories, and so the project will

be able to avoid hotel expenditures. Food for meals prepared onboard the vessel by a

cook is budgeted at $10 per day per person. Total (Years 1–3): $15,300

8. Total Direct Costs: $376,200

9. Total Indirect Costs: $0

10. Total Project Costs: $376,200

11. Project Funding

a. Total Requested from NEH: $250,000

b. Cost Sharing

Applicant’s Contributions: $1,200

♦ Karl Krusell will donate one computer ($1,200) to the project.

Third Party Contributions: $125,000

♦ Provided by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology’s Board of

Directors

Total Cost Sharing: $125,200

12. Total Project Funding: $376,200

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Bibliography

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Blackman, D.J., and K. Branigan. 1975. “An Archaeological Survey on the South Coast of Crete, between Ayiofarango and Chrisostomos.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 70:17–36.

Blackman, D.J., and K. Branigan, with contributions by A.R. Doe, D.C. Holmes, and J. Bintliff. 1977. “An Archaeological Survey of the Lower Catchment of the Ayiofarango Valley.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 72:13–84.

Broodbank, C. 2008. “Long After Hippos, Well Before Palace: A Commentary on the Cultures and Contexts of Neolithic Crete.” In Escaping the Labyrinth: The Cretan Neolithic in Context, edited by V. Isaakidou and P.D. Tomkins, 273–290. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Broodbank, C., and T.F. Strasser. 1991. “Migrant Farmers and the Neolithic Colonization of Crete.” Antiquity 65:233–45.

Casson, L. 1995. Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient Wolrd. Rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Doumas, C. 1992. The Wall-Paintings of Thera. Translated by A. Doumas. Athens: The Thera Foundation – Petros M. Nomikos.

Flemming, N.C. 1978. “Holocene Eustatic Changes and Coastal Tectonics in the Northeast Mediterranean: Implications for Models of Crustal Consumption.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 289:405–458.

Foley, B. et al. 2009. “The 2005 Chios Ancient Shipwreck Survey.” Hesperia 78:269–305.

Fytikas, M., and G.E. Vougioukalakis, eds. 2005. The South Aegean Active Volcanic Arc: Present Knowledge and Future Perspectives. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Hope Simpson, R., P.P. Betancourt, P.J. Callaghan, D.K. Harlan, J.W. Hayes, J.W. Shaw, M.C. Shaw, and L.V. Watrous. 1995. “The Archaeological Survey of the Kommos Area.” In Kommos: An Excavation on the South Coast of Crete. Vol. 1, The Kommos Region and Houses of the Minoan Town. Part I: The Kommos Region, Ecology, and Minoan Industries, edited by J.W. Shaw and M. Shaw, 325–402. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Krijgsman, W., F.J. Hilgen, I. Raffi, F.J. Sierro, and D.S. Wilson. 1999. “Chronology, Causes, and Progression of the Messinian Salinity Crisis.” Nature 400:652–655.

Le Gras, A. 1870. General Examination of the Mediterranean Sea, A Summary of Its Winds, Currents, and Navigation. Translated by R. H. Wyman. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Leatham, J., and S. Hood. 1958/59. “Sub-Marine Exploration in Crete, 1955.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 53/54:263–280.

Leppard, T. 2014. “Modeling the Impacts of Mediterranean Island Colonization by Archaic Hominins: The Likelihood of an Insular Lower Palaeolithic.” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27(2):231–253.

Marchant, J. 2012. Hunt for the Ancient Mariner. Nature, 426–428.

Mortensen, P. 2008. “Lower to Middle Palaeolithic Artefacts from Loutro on the South Coast of Crete.” Antiquity Project Gallery 82(317). https://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/mortensen317/.

Pirazzoli, P.A., J. Thommeret, Y. Thommeret, J. Laborel, and L.F. Montag-Gioni. 1982. “Crustal Block Movements from Holocene Shorelines: Crete and Antikythera (Greece).” Tectonophysics 86(1):27–43.

Reuter, M., and T.C. Brachert. 2007. “Freshwater discharge and sediment dispersal – Control on growth, ecological structure and geometry of Late Miocene shallow-water coral ecosystems (early Tortonian, Crete/Greece).” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 225:308–328.

Runnels, C. 2014. “Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands?” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27(2):231–253.

Shaw, J.W. 2006. Kommos: A Minoan Harbor Town and Classical Santuary in Southern Crete. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Shaw, J.W., and M.C. Shaw. 2006. Kommos: An Excavation on the South Coast of Crete by the University of Toronto under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Vol. V: The Monumental Minoan Buildings at Kommos. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Søreide, F. 2011. Ships from the Depths: Deepwater Archaeology. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

Strasser, T.F., E. Panagopoulou, C.N. Runnels, P.M. Murray, N. Thompson, P. Karkanas, F.W. McCoy, and K.W. Wegmann. 2010. “Stone Age Seafaring in the Mediterranean: Evidence from the Plakias region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Habitation of Crete.” Hesperia 79:145–190.

Strasser, T.F., C. Runnels, K. Wegmann, E. Panagopoulou, F. McCoy, C. DiGregorio, P. Karkanas, and N. Thompson. 2011. “Dating Palaeolithic Sites in Southwestern Crete, Greece.” Journal of Quaternary Science 26:553–560.

Theodoulou, T., B. Foley, D. Evaggelistis, G. Koutsouflakis, D. Sakellariou, and A. Tourtas. 2011. “Crete Project 2011: Underwater Archaeological Survey at the Area off Heraklion and Dia Island. A Preliminary Report.” In Αρχαιολογικο Εργο Κρητησ 3: Πρακτικά της 3ης Συνάντησης Ρέθυμνο, 5–8 Δεκεμβρίου 2013, edited by P. Karanastassi, A. Gigungak, and C. Tsigonak, 615–625. Rethymno: University of Crete.

Wachsmann, S. 1987. Aegeans in the Theban Tombs, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 20. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters.

Wachsmann, S. 1998. Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant, Ed Rachel Foundation Nautical Archaeology Series. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

Wachsmann, S., et al. 2009. “The Danaos Project, 2008: Reconstructing the Crete to Egypt Route.” In Proceedings of the 9th Hellenic Symposium on Oceanography & Fisheries, May 13–16, 2009, Patras, Greece. Vol. 1, 146–151. Athens: Association of Employees of the Hellenic Centre of Marine Research.

Watrous, L.V., D. Hadzi-Vallianou, and H. Blitzer, eds. 2004. The Plain of Phaistos: Cycles of Social Complexity in the Mesara Region of Crete. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Appendix B: Permitting Procedures

It is the policy of the Greek Ministry of Culture that all American scholars wishing to conduct fieldwork in Greece must submit an application for a permit via the American School of

Classical Studies at Athens. Completed proposals are due to the Director of the School and the

Chair of the Excavation and Survey Committee 18 months before the project is to take place. As

such, an abbreviated copy of this proposal is to be sent to Jenifer Neils (Director of the School)

and Bryan Burns (Chair of the Excavation and Survey Committee) by November 2017. If

approved by the committee, the School will apply on behalf of the Institute of Nautical

Archaeology to the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports by November 2018 for a permit to

carry out the first survey season in June 2019. This is the earliest date we can hope to carry out

the survey as proposals are considered only as permits become available. Each year, the

American School of Classical Studies at Athens is entitled by Greek law to three American

projects (including both excavations and surveys) and three joint projects or synergasias.

Appendix C: Figures

Fig. 1: Map of Crete

Fig. 2: The Messara Plain

Fig. 3: Nautical Chart for the Gulf of Messara

Fig. 4: Density Map of Marine Traffic around the Island of Crete

Fig. 5: The Archaeological Research Vessel Virazon II