Dive & Dig

By: Honor Frost Foundation
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  • Summary

  • Welcome to Dive & Dig presented by Bettany Hughes and Dr Lucy Blue, the podcast that takes you on an underwater journey deeper than you might ever have imagined! We'll take you down into an undiscovered world of our ancient past thanks to the technology which makes deep diving possible today. And we'll show you some amazing archaeological discoveries when we get there.
    Honor Frost Foundation 2022 618298
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Episodes
  • S4 Ep1: Climate Change & Maritime Cultural Heritage: Storm Bombs & Climate Threats

    S4 Ep1: Climate Change & Maritime Cultural Heritage: Storm Bombs & Climate Threats
    Feb 5 2025
    Professor Lucy Blue asks Dr Colin Breen, Associate Head of School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University to outline the issues of climate change and its impact on marine and coastal heritage, in the first of this new Dive and Dig Series that explores this pressing theme. Although the climate has been changing over many millennia, we are now seeing the pace of change occurring at a much greater rate together with increased intensity of storms, all driving loss to heritage in the coastal zone. Colin explains the impact of this destruction through a range of climate, as well as anthropogenic threats, and illustrates with examples from the North and East African coasts, the devastating impact of these storm bombs on the coastal and marine heritage. Colin emphasises the importance of documenting coastal heritage and assessing the impact of threat and potential preservation, a methodology being developed by the Arcadia funded MarEA project that he co-directs (https://marea.soton.ac.uk/). Not everything can be saved, however, might a joint nature-culture approach be a better way forward? Colin suggests that it is and that we must move out of our silos and create an integrated heritage network to protect and manage these precious resources.

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    15 mins
  • Walking the Coast of North West Egypt

    Walking the Coast of North West Egypt
    Dec 11 2024
    Professor Lucy Blue is in Egypt with a team of specialists co-directing a project with the Universities of Southampton and Ulster as part of the MarEA (Endangered Maritime Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa) project. Together with experts from the Universities of Alexandria and Mersa Matruh, Egypt they are utilizing satellite imagery and other technologies to explore the western section of the north African coastline of Egypt. This approach has revealed an extraordinary number of ancient sites, many dating back over 2,000 years. The findings shed new light on the rich maritime history of the region, including trade, settlement, and cultural interactions along the Mediterranean coast. This large-scale survey is crucial for documenting and preserving vulnerable archaeological sites, many of which are under threat from modern development and environmental changes.

    Speaking with members of the team, including Dr Nicholas Ray, MarEA, Ulster University and Dr Ziad Morsy and Hagar Wafik from the Centre of Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage, University of Alexandria, and Dr. Basma Khalili, a ceramic expert from the University of Mersa Matruh, we learn that the project has uncovered remarkable archaeological finds from pottery production sites to rock-cut tombs. Some of the discovered sites span several kilometres, highlighting the scale of these ancient settlements and hinting at the vibrant trade networks of the time.

    MarEA is a research project based in the University of Southampton and partners in University of Ulster, funded by Arcadia and the NW Egypt coastal survey is largely funded by the Honor Frost Foundation.
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    21 mins
  • Wine and Plunder: Discovering the Fort Royale shipwreck of France

    Wine and Plunder: Discovering the Fort Royale shipwreck of France
    Nov 6 2024
    Professor Lucy Blue is in Naples speaking with Pierre Poveda (Center Camille Jullian, CNRS), a maritime archaeologist who is co-leading, with his colleague Franca Cibecchini (DRASSM, french ministry of Culture), the excavation of a shipwreck lying in French waters between Cannes and the Île Sainte-Marguerite, home to Fort Royal. The wreck dating to around 180 BC is well preserved, with its entire port side buried beneath masses of dead roots of Posidonia seagrass. A few small wooden artefacts, including writing tablets have been recovered, as well as Italian amphorae that were transporting wine. Despite its hidden location the site has proven vulnerable to looting, and Pierre shares the dramatic story surrounding approximately 100 amphorae taken mostly from the wreck and also from other archaeological sites. Further seasons of work are planned, with the goal of displaying the finds at the Museum of Fort Royal offering the public a closer look at these ancient maritime treasures and the ship’s role in Mediterranean trade.

    The excavation of the Hellenistic wreck Fort-Royal 1 is being carried out under the joint direction of Franca Cibecchini (Drassm - Ministry of Culture) and Pierre Poveda (CCJ-CNRS-AMU), who offer the following thanks:

    We would particularly like to thank the direction of the French Ministry of Culture's Department of Underwater Archaeological Research (DRASSM), as well as the direction of the Camille Jullian Center (CNRS, Aix-Marseille University).

    We would also like to thank the City of Cannes, and our collaborators: the Institut Arkaia (Aix marseille Université), the Musée départemental Arles antique (MdAa), the MAC-Centre d'Arqueologia Subaquàtica de Catalunya (CASC), the Scoop Ipso Facto and, of course, all those involved in the excavation: archaeologists and members of the Alfred Merlin crew.

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    15 mins

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