To research an ancient culture, Daniel Master used two seemingly unrelated tools: the Bible and an undersea robot.
Master, a Wheaton College professor and archaeologist, spoke in Simrall auditorium Tuesday night.
Master works off the coast of Israel uncovering Phoenician artifacts buried deep below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea Master’s lecture, titled “Journey to the Bottom of the Sea: Phoenicians off the Coast of Ashkelon,” was supplemented by photographs from the actual archaeological site.
Master, who holds his doctorate degree in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University, first began work on the project during his graduate studies in 1998. He was first called to Groton, Conn., watch video footage recorded by a Navy NR-1 vessel looking for a lost Israeli submarine. Instead of finding the lost sub, the NR-1 found three ancient shipwrecks.
“From the video, it looked as though the sub had found something we’d be interested in,” Master said. “It turns out the video was of jars. Jar after jar after jar.”
Master said the film footage was too grainy to be able to make out major characteristics of the jars.
“Even subtle differences can make big differences,” Master said.
A team composed of National Geographic explorers, Navy officers, archeologist and naval researchers were sent to Asheklon, off the coast of Israel, to further investigate the wreck.
A robot known as Jason, capable of making precise movements and taking detailed photographs, was sent below the surface to explore the site. Transponders were sent to the robot so its position could be detailed within two square centimeters.
“This way we could know exactly where it was within the whole globe,” Master said.
Undersea, Jason found the rows of jars, which Master said were later recognized as “sausage jars, which are particular to 8th century Lebanon and Israel.”
The robot took hundreds of pictures, which were then laid into a mosaic pattern, giving a near-accurate view of the entire shipwreck.
“From the position of the jars on the sand, we could determine the shape of the ship and we realized this was a standard merchant ship carrying cargo,” Master said.
“We named the wreck ‘Tanit’ after the Phoenician goddess in charge of protecting her fleet,” Master said. “Which is ironic, since this fleet obviously didn’t make it.”
Master said the research team was able to uncover and bring to the surface several storage jars and cooking pots from Phoenicia, a bowl from Egypt and a mortar from North Syria by using a robotic elevator device. The research team found the lined with resin, indicative of wine storage.
Master said the estimated date of these artifacts is 750 B.C.
“These artifacts are from roughly the time when Homer wrote The Illiad
and The Odyssey,” he added.
Once the team had uncovered these artifacts, they wanted answers about who these people were and where they traveled. For an explanation, the research team turned to the Bible. Ezekiel 27 gives a description of trade goods that match the artifacts found underwater. Egyptian papyri tax receipts were instrumental in explaining the life of the Phoenicians as well. Master said the team realized that the Phoenician merchant ships traveled all around the Mediterranean Sea doing business with the Romans, the Egyptians and the Lebanese, among others.
The Cobb Institute sponsored the event, along with the department of philosophy and religion and the College of Arts and Sciences.
“This is brand new research. We were excited to have one of the primary investigators here,” said James Hardin, a visiting research assistant at the Cobb Institute of Archaeology. “The experiences are so broad, yet so close to what we are doing at the Cobb Institute.”
Master said, “These Phoenician wrecks are just the beginning of a new field of archaeology that is charging forward.”
Karen Cauthen, a senior architect major, said she found the lecture interesting because it was a first-hand account of a type of archeology of which she was unfamiliar.
“I thought the lecture was quite intriguing because we don’t have a deep water program here,” Cauthen said. “It was different to actually see it and not just watch it on the Discovery Channel.”