1999 Field Project - Ashkelon Phoenician wrecks

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Enlarge ImageImage of Ashkelon wreck collected in 1997 by submarine NR-1. Based on images like this, Harvard Professor Larry Stager correctly surmised the vessel was 8th century B.C. (U.S. Navy submarine NR-1)

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Two 8th cenury B.C. shipwrecks off the Levantine coast

After departing from the Skerki Bank project in 1997, the U.S. Navy submarine NR-1 transited to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to search for the lost Israeli submarine, Dakar. NR-1’s crew did not find Dakar, but did locate two ancient shipwrecks west of Gaza. In 1999 Dr. Robert Ballard led a team of scientists and engineers on an archaeological expedition to the site. Harvard University Professor Lawrence Stager was the Chief Archaeologist of the project. Using WHOI’s Jason/Medea ROV tandem at a depth of 400 meters, Stager and his team identified the wrecks as 8^th century B.C. Phoenician vessels. The ships each carried an apparently uniform cargo of wine in amphoras.