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VALMARQ and its Thematic Galleries
UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY GALLERY
The third gallery introduces the world of underwater archaeology.
The centre piece of the gallery is a replica of a Roman cargo ship (an “oneraria”). You can see its cargo of amphora in situ through an opening in the side of the ship.
Next to the replica ship there is a recreation of the wreck, of this ship, being excavated. The remains of a sunken ship are known as a shipwreck. The approach to underwater excavation is very different to excavating on land due to the different conditions encountered, such as buoyancy, lack of light, slow movements and shifting marine sediments.
In this image there are four objects used by archaeologists during excavation. Can you identify them and guess what they are used for? Use the interactives if you need to.
Read the following information:
- Just in front of the “shipwreck”, there is a video of an actual underwater excavation. Look how the large and heavy objects (amphora, anchors, metal ingots) are lifted using a balloon filled with air that rises with great force to the surface. You can also see how you “excavate” underwater, using a pipe to vacuum up the sediment, leaving the remains exposed.
- In contrast to the previous thematic galleries, the two touch screens contain different information to each other. The interactive screen near the shipwreck provides information on the tools used by archaeologists and the remains of the ship recovered. The second one, next to the replica ship, provides lots of information on the different parts of the ancient ship and its cargo.
- The large audiovisual screen takes us on a tour through the history of ships from Prehistoric times to the present day, with the background of the Alicante coast.
