Tektas Shipwreck Excavation The first season, summer 1999. Project Director: George F. Bass During the summer of 1999, INA began the excavation of a ship that sank between 450 and 425 B.C., the Golden Age of Classical Greece, the time when the Parthenon was being built, the time of Pericles, Thucydides, Sophocles, Socrates, Herodotus, Pheidias, and others whose names remain well known.  It lies about 130 feet deep off a cape known as Tektas Burnu, north of ancient Teos on the western coast of Turkey.

While building a camp on the jagged rocks of the cape, the team of up to 40 people lived for two months on Artemis, a former U.S. Navy wooden minesweeper, built in 1942, and on INA's own research vessel Virazon.

Much of the summer was devoted to preparing the site for full-scale excavation by cleaning and mapping the amphoras in the cargo. Three-dimensional mapping was accomplished by a new computerized system that combines calibrated 35 mm and digital cameras.

It is too early to guess what the ship may hold, but already it is producing a closed deposit of fifth-century B.C. tablewares, cooking pots, lamps, and storage jars, suggesting that it sank before much if anything could be removed from it by its crew.

The excavation was sponsored not only by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, but by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, and Turkish Airlines (THY).  National Geographic Explorer has already telecast a segment on the excavation several times, and the project is being covered by both National Geographic and INA photographers for future publication.

Images from the 1999 season

(click on the individual images for a full-sized picture)

	The Artemis, a U.S. built WWII minesweeper, which served as a floating hotel for many members of the excavation staff, is seen here moored near the Tektas wreck site. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
View of the ship Artemis from the camp site with Tektas point, or "one-rock", in the background. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
	Construction of the camp kitchen or "galley". (Photo: Asaf Oron)
Offloading supplies onto the rocks on an exceptionally calm day. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
	View of the camp site in the early stages of construction from the Artemis. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
Another view of the camp site from the Tektas point. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
	Chief conservator Asaf Oron examining a one-handled jug in the newly built conservation lab at the camp site. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
Taking a break from camp construction - (left to right) Asaf Oron, Peter Van Alfen, and George Bass. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
	The INA research vessel Virazon, as it was moored near the site. (Photo: Asaf Oron)
A small ceramic vessel is revealed by the "hand-fanning" of one of the project archaeologists. (Photo: INA)
	Several ceramic bowls from the shipwreck prior to conservation. (Photo: INA)