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On the Track of Shipwrecks Marine archaeologist Brendan Foley '91 explores wrecks at depths no diver can reach By Kimberly Swick Slover

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From the birth of civilization to the current Information Age, technology has driven the major eras in human history. Today new technologies are breaking into the last frontier on earth—the 98 percent of the deep oceans that remain unexplored. Brendan Foley '91, a research associate and the only marine archaeologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, believes this new frontier will also change history—revealing long-submerged secrets of western civilization.

Beginning in about 3100 B.C., simple farming technologies enabled the first permanent and complex settlements to flourish in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the fertile regions along the Tigres and Euphrates rivers where southwest Asia meets northeast Africa. In the Bronze Age that followed, humans learned to forge metals and build ships capable of crossing oceans and carrying the seeds of civilization to less fertile lands. Around 2000 B.C., seafaring trade reached the rocky Aegean islands and coastlines of Greece, where ancient societies would produce the great literature, philosophy, advanced mathematics and tenets of democracy that would lead to western civilization.

Yet the history of maritime trade in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas and its major role in the origins of our civilization remains a vast mystery, its clues hidden on the deep ocean floor amid the wreckage of ancient ships that once transported, along with their cargoes, new ideas, tools and cultural exchanges. These shipwrecks have eluded human inquiry for thousands of years, until now, when advanced technologies have spawned the emerging field of deep-water archaeology and opened previously inaccessible territory to a new age of discovery.

"You can think about these ancient ships as telephone lines we're able to listen in on to see who's talking to whom, because ships were not only the medium of trade, they were the medium of communication," says Foley. "Given my background, I believe in technology's ability to shape what we think. Whatever happed in the Bronze Age changed our world. I don't know what it is yet, but I do think that ancient shipwrecks can give us the answers."

Foley has a grand plan to open those lines of communication to the ancient world through the exploration of hundreds of deep-water shipwrecks from many past eras, and specifically, the discovery of rare Bronze Age vessels. He believes he and his colleagues will uncover more historical and cultural treasures than now exist in all the world's museums combined—and even more valuable insights into early western civilization.

"Terrestrial archaeology used to focus on a single site at a time, and now with satellite imagery, geographic information systems and aerial mapping, there's a trend toward landscape archaeology and trying to see the broader sweep," says Foley. "We're taking a similar approach in using deep-water technologies to survey as many shipwrecks from as many periods of time as we can. By mapping out the shipwrecks across the entire seafloor, we'll begin to see the patterns of ancient connections that were based on seaborne shipping and led to the birth of our civilization."

Foley has good reasons for high expectations. The only two Bronze Age shipwrecks recovered in the Mediterranean Sea rocked the worlds of scientists and scholars alike. Found in shallow waters off the coast of Turkey, near Gelidonya in 1954 and Uluburun in 1982, the shipwrecks were later excavated by marine researchers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A & M University, and determined to originate between 1200 and 1300 B.C. in Phoenicia, the lands now known as Syria and Lebanon. The wrecks yielded an astonishing cargo with tons of well-preserved statuary, jewelry, tools and weaponry from Egypt, Cyprus and other parts of the Near East. These findings also altered history, as the Phoenicians were not known to have traded in the Aegean Sea region before 800 B.C.

But for Foley's dream of changing history to unfold, new and better technologies will not be enough. He will also need to inspire engineers and historians, oceanographers, geologists and archaeologists from around the world to work toward these same goals. He will have to convince foreign governments and scholars to share their territorial waters and historical treasures with him and his American colleagues. And he will need to find individuals and organizations to invest in an ambitious project without precedent that could take decades to complete.

Since 2003, when Foley joined Woods Hole's Deep Submergence Laboratory, he has been building the cross-disciplinary, international and political relationships needed to realize his bold vision. These efforts have already led to a promising partnership with Greece that allows joint exploration of shipwrecks in Greek waters; to expeditions in which precision technologies have surveyed deep-water shipwreck sites in hours rather than years; and to the first successful use of DNA testing to identify a 4th-century B.C. shipwreck's ancient cargo.

Foley's love of the ocean and history began in his childhood in the 17-century coastal town of Newbury, Mass. He and his friends learned to scuba-dive as teens, which opened a fascinating underwater world to them. He aspired to attend the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and become a career naval officer, but this dream was derailed when as a high school senior, he broke his neck in a wrestling match, which disqualified him from admission.

Disappointed and confused about his direction, Foley headed to the University of New Hampshire, where he joined a fraternity and studied history, albeit half-heartedly at first. He cites History Professor Greg McMahon as a favorite teacher with whom he took several courses and an independent study in nautical history. Professor McMahon recalls Foley as a smart, serious and often funny student who stood out in class. "As a senior he asked me to cancel the final, and I said that since college is all about acquiring knowledge and persuasive skills, if he could convince me of good reasons for canceling it, then he wouldn't need one. He didn't convince me, but he was the kind of student who had the chutzpah and sense of humor to give it a try."

While at UNH, Foley found a way to combine his two great loves through a summer field studies course led by David Switzer, a history professor at Plymouth State University. Professor Switzer led students in the excavation of a 17th-century shallop—a heavy, open vessel propelled by oars and sails and used for fishing and limited coastal trading—which was submerged at the mouth of the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, N.H. For three summers, Foley worked with Switzer, putting his scuba-diving skills and knowledge of early American history to good use. He also acquired underwater photography skills and mastered the laborious and precise practice of mapping marine excavation sites, using poles and string to lay out watery grids. These excavations can take months, years, even decades to complete, depending on the site's size and complexity.

"Dave Switzer is the best teacher I ever had," says Foley. "He'd present the problem, and then ask, 'what do you think?' He didn't force knowledge on us, but gave us opportunities to meet our potential. Every year the field school had a plan, but we didn't stick slavishly to it, which led us in directions we never could have predicted."

By his example, Switzer inspired Foley to envision a new path for his own life. "I thought, who do I know who has the kind of lifestyle I like? It was professors like Dave Switzer, who get to be around young people and explore their areas of interest wherever, and often, whenever, they like, depending on how they structure their research."

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