Page 55 - TINA Dergi Sayi 08
P. 55
TINA
Maritime Archaeology Periodical
In southwestern Turkey, INA built, owns, and
operates the Bodrum Research Center (BRC),
with offices, conservation laboratories and a
10,000-volume research library, the heart of
which are the private collections of classical
archaeologists Homer Thompson and G. Roger
Edwards. Students and scholars from around the
world work out of the BRC to survey, study, and
publish the region’s shipwrecks. The BRC’s dor-
mitory and corresponding guest suite accommo-
date visiting international scholars, researchers,
and students. INA surveys and excavations are
now conducted from INA’s brand new $2m, state-
of-the-art 75-foot-long research vessel virazon
II and two-person submersible Carolyn, utilizing
a wide variety of excavation and safety equip-
ment, including recompression chambers and re-
mote sensing gear.
virazon II, which is the first ship to be built and
classed in Turkey as an Archaeological Research
Vessel, is capable of carrying out fieldwork
around the Mediterranean and beyond. The BRC
is staffed by 18 Turkish citizens who include con-
servators, archaeologists, technicians, carpenters
and mechanics, all supervised by Director Tuba
Ekmekçi.
Visitors to the Bodrum Museum of Underwa-
ter Archaeology learn about the important ship-
wrecks excavated by INA with its Turkish part-
th
ners. Situated inside the walls of a 15 -century
castle, the museum features a full-scale diorama
of the Late Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck
and artifacts recovered from a 5 -century B.C.
th
Classical Greek shipwreck excavated by INA
President Deborah Carlson; visitors can walk
on the deck of a full-scale replica of the 7 -cen-
th
tury Byzantine wreck at Yassıada, and see the
restored remains of the 11 -century wreck exca-
th
vated at Serçe Limanı with its immense cargo of
Islamic glass. Eight other medieval shipwrecks
excavated from the silted harbor of Byzantine
Constantinople at Yenikapı (Istanbul) are being
conserved in Bodrum for research and publica-
tion by INA Vice President Cemal Pulak. The
Dalgıçlar, Yassıada’daki (Türkiye) Bizans Batığı’ndan Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology,
amphoraları çıkarıyor. (© INA) which has maintained a decades-long partner-
Divers raise globular amphoras from the Byzantine ship- ship with INA, is a showcase for the history of
wreck at Yassiada, Turkey. (© INA) underwater archaeology in Turkey.
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