Underwater archaeology has helped our modern world because through the newly developing techniques and discoveries, it has helped us learn more about our past civilisation’s religious beliefs and behaviours, including lifestyle and military contests. The advancing technology has helped underwater archaeologists reach deeper sites that were previously inaccessible (Bahn, P. 1991) The improvement of the scuba gear, instruments and data collecting methods has enabled divers to manoeuvre around and correctly document the sites. (waterencyclopedia.com) This has helped, as then the underwater archaeologists can excavate more areas and gather more information than they have previously been able to. (waterencyclopedia.com) From the increase in knowledge about the past it has helped the modern world gain a better understanding about our heritage and how we have developed throughout the years.
The discoveries found have given us more information on:
The religion of ancient civilisations:
• Underwater archaeological discoveries have given historians an insight into the religion of each civilisation. For example, in Mexico a cenote called Chichen-Itza was discovered. (UNESCO, 1987) This freshwater well is vast, as it reaches 22 metres in depth and has a diameter of 68 metres. (UNESCO, 1987) The Chichen-Itza belonged to the Mayan civilization and they would put offerings to the gods into the well. (UNESCO, 1987) When it was excavated in 1904 by Edward H. Thompson, some artefacts that were found were stone statues, jade figures, copper and gold discs, (UNESCO, 1987) masks, rings, cups, plaques and human skeletons. (Hirst, H. 2010) The site was excavated by lowering the water levels and sending divers down to recover the artefacts. (UNESCO, 1987) This discovery helped the modern world learn more about the religion in the Mayan civilisations.
The lifestyle and military contests of ancient civilisations:
• When the Mary Rose flagship was excavated some of the artefacts that were discovered were a backgammon board, tabor pipes and tabor, which are a drum, shawm and fiddles. (localhistories.org) This gives us an insight into the lifestyle of the crew members on board the ship and how people in the 1500s occupied their time. The Mary Rose also told the modern world more about the military contests of ancient civilisations. As I mentioned before, the Mary Rose sank while battling a French fleet.(UNESCO, 1987) A lot of weaponry was found on board which tells us how developed the United Kingdom was with metal work in the 1500s and what weapons they required. The Mary Rose had holes in the side of her so that the cannons could be fired from there. This find also tells historians that the United Kingdom and French were fighting in the 1500s.
Without underwater archaeology, these artefacts and therefore knowledge about ancient civilisation’s religious beliefs, lifestyle and involvement in military contests would not have been discovered.
