Category Archives: WORLD

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Burial cave dedicated to Jesus midwife Salome reveals treasures; will open to public

Burial cave dedicated to Jesus midwife Salome reveals treasures; will open to public

Burial cave dedicated to Jesus midwife Salome reveals treasures; will open to public
Modern-day religious artifacts from people who enter the cave to pray, even though it is not currently open to the public. The burial cave is a pilgrimage sight honoring Salome, Jesus’ midwife, in the Lachish region of Israel on December 20, 2022.

Ahead of opening a burial cave dedicated to Salome, the midwife of Jesus, to the public, archaeologists have recently uncovered a number of priceless artifacts from its courtyard, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.

The tomb is a centuries-old Christian pilgrimage site, located in the Lachish region in central Israel.

“According to a Christian tradition, Salome was the midwife from Bethlehem, who was called to participate in the birth of Jesus,” said IAA archaeologist Zvi Firer. “She could not believe that she was asked to deliver a virgin’s baby, and her hand became dry and was only healed when she held the baby’s cradle.”

The burial cave was discovered in 1982 by antiquities looters and subsequently excavated in 1984 by Prof. Amos Kloner of the IAA. But, despite ample proof of its use as a sacred Christian site, it was never opened to the public.

For the past two months, archaeologists have excavated an elaborate courtyard of 350 square meters (almost 4,000 square feet) at the entrance to the cave, filled with intricate stone carvings, soaring arches, a mosaic floor, and the remains of a shop where pilgrims may have rented oil lamps to light their way inside the cave for their prayers.

“We found dozens of these lamps covered with carvings of pomegranates and intricate geometric designs,” said Firer.

The lamps, including more than two dozen found intact, were found together in an area that archaeologists identified as a small marketplace in the courtyard.

Israel Antiquities Authority’s Zvi Firer holds carved oil lamps found in the courtyard to the burial cave, which were believed to have been rented to visiting pilgrims, in Lachish, Israel, on December 20, 2022.

“We believe that pilgrims would come here, rent an oil lamp, perform their prayers inside, and go on their way. It’s like today when you go to the grave of a revered rabbi and light a candle there,” Firer said.

The cave was likely a Jewish burial cave for a wealthy family prior to its adaption as a Christian holy site. The first room of the burial cave dates to the Second Temple period, which stretches from the 6th century BCE to 70 CE. It has several chambers with multiple rock-hewn kokhim (burial niches) and broken ossuaries (stone boxes), which reflect a Jewish burial custom.

Local Christians first identified the site as the burial place of Salome in the Byzantine era and turned the spot into a pilgrimage site, explained Firer. Inner rooms of the burial cave are from the Byzantine era, from around 300 CE to 600 CE. The newly recovered oil lamps are from the 8th or 9th century CE in the early Islamic period.

Firer added that the name “Salome” or “Shlomit” was a common Jewish name in the Second Temple period in Hasmonean and Herodian families.

“The name Salome may possibly have appeared in antiquity on one of the ossuaries in the tomb, and the tradition identifying the site with Salome the midwife developed, with the cave becoming venerated by Christianity,” he said.

Salome (right) with the midwife “Emea” (left), bathing the infant Jesus, is a common figure in Orthodox icons of the Nativity of Jesus; here in a 12th-century fresco from Cappadocia.

A trail built for kings

The work is being undertaken to open the cave to the public for the first time as part of the Judean Kings Trail, a 100-kilometer (60-mile) trail from Beersheba to Beit Guvrin featuring dozens of significant archaeological sites.

The burial cave is covered in ancient graffiti, including the words “Salome,” “Jesus,” the names of pilgrims, and crosses etched into the wall. The most impressive is an inscription in Greek that reads “Zacharia Ben Kerelis, dedicated to the Holy Salome.” Archaeologists believe that Zacharia Ben Kerelis was a wealthy Jewish patron who funded the construction of parts of the burial cave and the courtyard.

Saar Ganon, director of the Judean Kings Trail project, points out the inscription, ‘Zacharia Ben Kerelis, dedicated to the Holy Salome,’ in the burial cave in Lachish, Israel, on December 20, 2022.

“We’re now working on ways to preserve all of these ancient carvings while opening the site to the public,” said Saar Ganor, the IAA director of the Judean Kings’ Trail Project. The current excavations are also being carried out in cooperation with the Ministry for Jerusalem and Heritage and the Jewish National Fund.

A few pilgrims still illegally enter the tomb, as evidenced by modern-day icons and candles in the altars in inner rooms, but Ganor hopes the cave’s official opening will allow greater numbers of people to safely experience the site.

Inscription to ‘Zacharia Ben Kerelis, dedicated to the Holy Salome’ in the burial cave in Lachish, Israel, on December 20, 2022.

“This trail, which crosses the Judean Shefelah [flatlands], is the backbone of the Jewish people’s cultural heritage, and it encompasses dozens of sites from the time of the Bible, the Second Temple, the Mishnah and the Talmud,” said Ganor. “This is a really important trail that combines tourism, history, and development.”

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Crocodile heads — buried 4,000 years ago — uncovered in tombs in Egypt, photos show

Crocodile heads — buried 4,000 years ago — uncovered in tombs in Egypt, photos show

Photo from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, M. Jawornicki, P. Chudzik, and U. Iwaszczcuk via Science in Poland

A pair of ancient nobles died thousands of years ago and were buried in nearby tombs in Egypt. Excavations of these graves revealed the first-of-its-kind discovery.

Archaeologists in Luxor excavated two tombs near the temple of Hatshepsut, Science in Poland said in a news release Tuesday, Dec. 20.

One grave belonged to Chancellor Cheti, an important official to the Pharaoh Mentuhotep II, and the other belonged to an anonymous vizier, comparable to the Pharaoh’s Prime Minister.

Inside the 4,000-year-old burial, researchers found nine crocodile heads, the release said. The heads were found wrapped in fabric and discarded in heaps left by earlier researchers.

Remains of the crocodile skin and fabric. Photo from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, M. Jawornicki, P. Chudzik, and U. Iwaszczcuk via Science in Poland

The skulls came from young and adult crocodiles, archaeologists said. While alive, the crocodiles were anywhere from 6 feet long to 13 feet long.

Crocodile heads — buried 4,000 years ago — uncovered in tombs in Egypt, photos show
Crocodile jaw fragments found at the tombs. Photo from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, M. Jawornicki, P. Chudzik, and U. Iwaszczcuk via Science in Poland

Although mummified crocodiles have been found in temples, no such crocodiles had been found in ancient Egyptian graves — until now, Patryk Chudzik, head of research at the Center of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw told Science in Poland.

These crocodile heads were likely buried to help the deceased on their journey to the afterlife, researchers said.

In tombs with crocodile heads, the soul of the deceased would be protected by the ancient Egyptian god Sobek, a figure commonly depicted as either a crocodile or a man with a crocodile head, Chudzik explained.

Crocodile heads may have been more common in the richest ancient tombs and simply discarded by previous researchers who focused on burial goods such as jewelry, gold, or pottery, experts said.

The temple of Hatshepsut is located in Luxor, about 400 miles south of Cairo.

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

1,200-year-old Viking grave — with a shield and knives — found in a backyard in Norway

1,200-year-old Viking grave — with a shield and knives — found in a backyard in Norway

Archaeologist Marianne Bugge Kræmer with the view from the discovery site. Holmendammen can be seen in the background.

“This location has been a prominent hill, clearly visible in the terrain and with a great view,” says Marianne Bugge Kræmer to sciencenorway.no. She is an archaeologist at the Oslo Municipality Cultural Heritage Management Office.

Here, on the upper side of the small pond called Holmendammen, someone in the Viking Age chose to build a grave. Today it is a residential area in the west side of Oslo.

“The grave was located directly under a thin layer of topsoil and turf right on the east side of the highest point on the site, with a fantastic view west over today’s Holmendammen. This was a valley where the stream Holmenbekken flowed in ancient times,” Bugge Kræmer said to sciencenorway.no.

Was going to build a new detached house

Holmendammen was built at the beginning of the 20th century after the Holmenbekken was dammed, and the dam was used to make ice, according to lokalhistorewiki.no (link in Norwegian), a website with local history information.

Bugge Kræmer was in charge of the investigation of the Viking grave, which appeared as archaeologists were surveying the site. The investigation was triggered by plans to build new detached house on a plot by Holmendammen in the Vestre Aker district in Oslo.

Holmendammen in the 1920s. Holmenkollåsen, famous for its skiing facilities, can be seen in the background.

Brooch from the Viking Age

The remains of a richly appointed Viking grave appeared here. Cremated human remains were uncovered, as well as many other objects.

The archaeologists found fragments of a soapstone vessel. There was also a penannular brooch – also known as a celtic brooch, a sickle, two knives, horse tack such as a possible bridle and a bell, Bugge Kræmer said. The discovery was first reported by NRK Oslo and Viken.

A shield boss was also discovered in the grave. This is the metal in the centre of a wooden shield. Since the wood disintegrates over the course of centuries, it is often the round shield boss that remains.

The penannular brooch in particular dates the grave to the Viking Age.

“For now, the grave has been dated based on the artefacts it contains. This type of brooch with spheres begins to appear in approximately AD 850 and became common after the 10th century AD,” Kræmer said to sciencenorway.no.

Some of the objects that were dug out from the grave. The box at the bottom contains the remains of the cape brooch with spheres, which helps archaeologists assign a preliminary date to the find.

For the record, the Viking Age is defined as the period between around AD 800 to 1066.

This is a provisional dating, since the finds from the grave are in the Museum of Cultural History for conservation and further research.

But this buckle may say something about who was buried here.

Below you can see where Holmendammen is located in Oslo.

Gender and things

“This kind of cape brooch was used by men, and along with the discovery of a shield boss suggests that the deceased was a man,” Zanette Tsigaridas Glørstad said to sciencenorway.no.

Glørstad is an archaeologist and associate professor at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History. She is working with the Holmendammen find at the museum.

A great deal of information can be extracted from archaeological finds. Old DNA can be extracted from old bones and can, for example, reveal kinship, gender and other inherited characteristics. One striking example of this is a famous Viking grave in Birka in Sweden. For more than 150 years it was believed the person buried there was a male warrior, until researchers in 2017 did a genomic analysis which revealed that the remains in fact belonged to a woman.

But the remains from the grave at Holmendammen may not be able to be examined in this way.

An excavator was used to remove the top layer of soil, so that the soil beneath is revealed. The investigations were financed by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, since the project was a smaller, private initiative. The developer has not incurred any expenses, according to Marianne Bugge Kræmer.

“Right now the objects are in our conservation lab, and we are waiting for them to be ready before we can say anything more about the objects. We didn’t find any remains of unburnt bones, so we can’t extract DNA from what we found,” Glørstad said to sciencenorway.no.

It remains to be seen what information the researchers can uncover about the person who was buried here. A report on the discovery is now being prepared.

Oslo graves

Glørstad says this is the first artefact-rich Viking grave in Oslo that has been excavated by archaeologists. But many objects that can be linked to Viking graves have been found by, among others, construction workers in Oslo over the years.

Glørstad says that they are aware of the discovery of remains from around 60 graves from the Viking Age in Oslo. Most were found around the turn of the century in 1900 when the town expanded to St.Hanshaugen, Grünerløkka, Bjølsen, Tåsen and Sinsen.

These involve many individual items that can perhaps be connected to a grave, and in some cases they are found in a pile or together with burnt bones, says Glørstad.

For example, a Viking sword was found when Oslo’s new town hall was to be erected in the 1930s. This is just one of many discoveries that former county conservationist Frans-Arne Stylegar describes on this blog (in Norwegian), which Glørstad mentioned.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

A rural necropolis from Late Antiquity discovered in northeastern France

A rural necropolis from Late Antiquity discovered in northeastern France

Inrap archaeologists have unearthed a small rural necropolis from the late 5th century (Late Antiquity) at Sainte-Marie-aux-Chênes in northeastern France.

The necropolis, which is located along an ancient road, contains the remains of cremation structures as well as several richly furnished inhumations. The burial ground is most likely linked to the remains of an ancient Roman villa discovered nearby more than a decade ago.

In 2009, archaeological material was discovered during a survey of the site prior to the construction of a subdivision. Archaeologists discovered the remains of a 1st-century Roman villa’s pars Rustica (the farm buildings) and a Medieval hamlet occupied until the 12th century during the two seasons of excavations that followed.

Three Merovingian-era (mid-5th-8th centuries) tombs containing the remains of seven people, all from the same family, were found in the ruins of a Roman estate barn.

In 2020, when the subdivision planned to grow toward the former Ida mine and factory, excavations started up again. Test pits discovered the first early Iron Age remains at the site attesting that the area was settled earlier than previously realized and a continuation of the Medieval hamlet into the valley. In addition, a cremation pit dating to the 1st century and a secondary filling from the Gallo-Roman period were also unearthed.

A rural necropolis from Late Antiquity discovered in northeastern France

In contrast to the 2009–10 digs, the 2020 excavation investigated the opposite side of the valley. Although the soil has been severely eroded, this has had the fortunate archaeological side-effect of accumulating sediment layers over the necropolis, aiding in the preservation of the remains.

About ten cremation structures were found by archaeologists after they dug through those layers. In meticulously carved quadrangular pits and much rougher round niches that appear to be postholes but aren’t, fragments of charred bone remains were discovered.

There aren’t any cinerary urns left, and not much bone remains. Some nails, possibly from a coffin, and a square pit with a collection of blacksmithing equipment and forge remnants were discovered (tongs, metal scraps, slag).

Glass plate.

In the same area, ten Late Antiquity tombs were discovered. The pits were carefully dug in parallel rows. There was a single inhumed individual in supine position, adults of both sexes, and four confirmed young children in each grave.

Hairpins and necklaces were used to identify two adult women. While no coffins or burial beds were discovered in the graves, iron nails and wood traces indicate that the bodies were buried in or on wooden biers.

The deceased were buried with a variety of grave goods. Ceramic vessels made of local Argonne clay were discovered at the bodies’ heads and/or feet.

They are believed to have contained food offerings now long decomposed. High-quality and diverse glassware was also buried with the dead: cups, bottles, flasks, goblets, bowls, and dishes. The deceased was adorned with jewelry, mostly copper alloy pieces with beads, amber, and glass paste.

There were coins in the graves as well, some individual, some in groups, most likely held in organic material purses. Last but not least, two bone combs and a miniature axe were discovered next to a child’s head.

The excavation’s recovered remains are still being studied. Researchers hope to learn more about the deceased’s sex, age, and health records. The necropolis itself is still being studied to learn more about how it was organized and used, as well as to shed light on the funerary practices of the people who lived and died there in Late Antiquity.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

In France, a burial with six ankle bracelets was uncovered

In France, a burial with six ankle bracelets was uncovered

In France, a burial with six ankle bracelets was uncovered

An individual bedecked in copper jewelry was discovered during the excavation of a protohistoric necropolis in Aubagne, southeastern France.

The necropolis, which served as a transitional site between the late Bronze and early Iron ages from roughly 900 to 600 B.C., was first unearthed in 2021.

Ten burials, including three cremation deposits and eight burials buried beneath a tumulus, were discovered at that time. Three additional burials were found during this year’s excavation, one of which was hidden beneath a 33-foot-diameter tumulus.

The tumulus is noteworthy because a deep ditch surrounded it, and it probably used to be marked by a ring of stones. However, the burial inside was not furnished.

The two additional graves discovered this season were: The first contained the skeletal remains of a person who was wearing a twisted copper alloy bracelet and a pearl and stone jewel on the left shoulder. Near the deceased’s head, two ceramic pots were buried.

Six bracelets were discovered at ankle level, during excavation.

The second non-tumulus burial is the richest found in this necropolis thus far.

The individual was buried wearing a tubular torc with rolled terminals around their neck, three ankle bangles, and three toe rings. A brooch and a large ceramic urn were placed next to the deceased.

The tumulus and the first burial are close together. The third was separated from the first two. Each space was clearly and purposefully delimited by structures that are now long gone.

A line of postholes separates the tumulus and the first inhumation, indicating a linear structure that once formed the boundary line of space reserved for the dead. The second burial was defined by a six-foot-long alignment of stone blocks.

Torque.

The discovery of these three graves has significantly increased our knowledge of protohistoric southern French funerary customs.

They also show that the necropolis was much larger than what early archaeologists had thought it to be.

The necropolis is estimated to have covered at least 1.3 hectares and probably even more, according to the new data.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Early medieval female burial site is ‘most significant ever discovered’ in UK

Early medieval female burial site is ‘most significant ever discovered’ in UK

Find dating from about 650AD in Northamptonshire includes jewelled necklace and changed archaeologists’ view of the period

Early medieval female burial site is ‘most significant ever discovered’ in UK
A reconstruction of the burial site near Harpole in Northamptonshire.

Archaeologists don’t often bounce with excitement, but the Museum of London archaeology team could hardly contain themselves on Tuesday as they unveiled an “exhilarating” discovery made on the last day of an otherwise barren dig in the spring.

“This is the most significant early medieval female burial ever discovered in Britain,” said the leader of the dig, Levente Bence Balázs, almost skipping with elation. “It is an archaeologist’s dream to find something like this.”

“I was looking through a suspected rubbish pit when I saw teeth,” Balázs added, his voice catching with emotion at the memory. “Then two gold items appeared out of the earth and glinted at me.

These artefacts haven’t seen the light of day for 1,300 years, and to be the first person to see them is indescribable. But even then, we didn’t know quite how special this find was going to be.”

What Balázs had found was a woman buried between 630 and 670 AD – a woman buried in a bed alongside an extraordinary, 30-piece necklace of intricately-wrought gold, garnets and semi-precious stones. It is, by a country mile, the richest necklace of its type ever uncovered in Britain and reveals craftsmanship unparalleled in the early medieval period.

Collection of pendants from a necklace.

Also buried with the woman was a large, elaborately decorated cross, buried face down, another unique and mysterious feature of the grave’s secrets, and featuring highly unusual depictions of a human face in delicate silver with blue glass eyes. Two pots were buried alongside her, also unique in that they still contain a mysterious residue yet to be analysed.

“This is a find of international importance. This discovery has nudged the course of history, and the impact will get stronger as we investigate this find more deeply,” said Balázs.

“These mysterious discoveries pose so many more questions than they answer. There’s so much still to discover about what we’ve found and what it means.”

So much about the dig in April was inauspicious. The small, isolated Northamptonshire village of Harpole, whose name means “filthy pool”, was previously only known for its annual scarecrow festival and its proximity to arguably one of the worst motorway service stations in the UK.

There were no ancient churches near the dig or other burial sites. But thanks to the practice of developer-funded archeology, the Vistry Group housebuilders commissioned a search of the area they were building on.

Necklace reconstruction and layout side by side.

“I’ve worked for Vistry for 19 years and so I’ve had a lot of interaction with archaeologists,” said Daniel Oliver, Vistry’s regional technical director. “I’m used to Simon [Mortimer, archaeology consultant for the RPS group] ringing me up in great excitement about pot shards.” Beside him, Mortimer visibly stiffens in protest, and Oliver quickly adds: “Pot shards are very exciting, of course.”

“On the day the team discovered the Harpole treasure, I had five missed calls from Simon on my phone,” said Oliver. “I knew then that this was about more than pot shards. Exciting as pot shards are.”

The woman – and it is a woman, even though only the crowns of her teeth remain – was almost certainly an early Christian leader of significant personal wealth, both an abbess and a princess, perhaps. Lyn Blackmore, Museum of London archeology team specialist, said: “Women have been found buried alongside swords, but men have never been found buried alongside necklaces.” Experts agree she must have been one of the first women in Britain ever to reach a high position in the church.

Conservator Liz Barham working on the burial.

Devout as she clearly was, her grave is evidence of a shifting era when pagan and Christian beliefs were still in flux. “This is a fascinating burial of combined iconography: the burial bling has a distinctly pagan flavour, but the grave is also heavily vested in Christian iconography,” said Mortimer.

Vistry has waived its rights to the treasure, which now belongs to the state. The team hope it will be displayed locally, once their conservation work is complete – a painstaking endeavour that will take another two years at least.

Oliver is cagey about where the actual dig site is. It hasn’t been built over but, equally, it hasn’t been marked. “We don’t want people coming with metal detectors,” he said. “That would be a bit much.”

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Early Christian Pilgrimage Site Excavated in Israel

Early Christian Pilgrimage Site Excavated in Israel

Archaeologists have unveiled pilgrims’ lamps and other finds from the ”tomb of Salome”, a burial site named after a woman said to have assisted at the birth of Christ.

Early Christian Pilgrimage Site Excavated in Israel
Inscriptions engraved in stone in ancient Greek including the name of Salome, inside a burial chamber west of Jerusalem.

The tomb was discovered by grave robbers in what is now Tel Lachish national park, west of Jerusalem, in the 1980s.

Subsequent excavations by archaeologists have uncovered a Jewish burial chamber dating back to the Roman period that was taken over by a Christian chapel in the Byzantine era and was still drawing worshippers into the early Islamic period.

An inscription found on the walls of the grotto led the excavation team to conclude it was dedicated to Salome, a figure associated with the birth of Jesus in Eastern Orthodox tradition.

“In the cave, we found tonnes of inscriptions in ancient Greek and Syriac,” said the excavation director, Zvi Firer.

“One of the beautiful inscriptions is the name Salome … “Because of this inscription, we understand this is the cave of holy Salome.”

One of the clay lamps was discovered during the excavations.

Salome’s role as an assistant to the midwife at Christ’s birth is recounted in the Gospel of James, a text dropped from the versions of the New Testament used by most western churches.

“The cult of Salome … belongs to a broader phenomenon, whereby the fifth-century Christian pilgrims encountered and sanctified Jewish sites,” the excavation team said.

Outside the grotto, the team found the remains of a colonnaded forecourt spanning 350 sq metres (3,750 sq ft), suggesting Salome was then a revered figure.

A man shines a light in a cave at the site.

Shops selling clay lamps and other items intended for pilgrims were found around the courtyard, dating from as late as the ninth century, 200 years after the Muslim conquest.

“It is interesting that some of the inscriptions were inscribed in Arabic, whilst the Christian believers continued to pray at the site,” the team said.

WORLD

Artifacts Recovered from Franklin Expedition Shipwreck

Artifacts Recovered from Franklin Expedition Shipwreck

Artifacts Recovered from Franklin Expedition Shipwreck
A Parks Canada underwater archaeologist works on the excavation of a furniture drawer in an officer’s cabin from the lower deck of the wreck of the HMS Erebus during a dive in this September 2022 handout photo in the Northwest Passage.

Eleven meters below the surface of the Northwest Passage, deep within the wreck of one of Capt. John Franklin’s doomed ships, something caught the eye of diver Ryan Harris.

Harris was in the middle of the 2022 field season on the wreck of HMS Erebus. The team had been hauling dozens of artifacts to the surface — elaborate table settings, a lieutenant’s epaulets still in their case, a lens from someone’s eyeglasses.

But this, sitting within the steward’s pantry, was something else.

“It’s probably the most remarkable find of the summer,” said Harris, one of the Parks Canada team of archaeologist divers who have been excavating Franklin’s two lost ships since they were found under the Arctic seas.

“We came across a folio — a leather book cover, beautifully embossed — with pages inside. It actually has the feather quill pen still tucked inside the cover like a journal that you might write in and put on your bedside table before turning in.”

Maybe it’s just an inventory of stores or someone’s laundry list. It was found in the pantry. Or maybe it’s more. 

“We’re quite excited at the tantalizing possibility that this artifact might have written materials inside,” Harris said. “It’s being analyzed in the lab now.”

Parks Canada tents and gear are shown at the HMS Erebus ice camp in the Northwest Passage in April.

Erebus and HMS Terror set out from England in 1845. Commander Sir John Franklin and his 129 men never returned. More than 30 expeditions tried to find them. A few artifacts, graves and ghastly tales of cannibalism is all they uncovered. But with a blend of Inuit oral history and systematic, high-tech surveys, Erebus was found in 2014, just off the northwest coast of King William Island in Nunavut and Terror two years later. The discoveries made headlines around the world.

56 dives in 11 days

Since then, Parks Canada has been working to understand what is down there and what light it could shed on a story that has become part of Canadian lore. Divers didn’t visit Terror in 2022. That vessel, down twice as deep as Erebus, is deemed more secure and the archaeologists wanted to excavate the more vulnerable wreck first.

Parks Canada archaeologists sit at the dive control console as the Deep Trekker ROV is seen in the diving hole at the HMS Erebus ice camp in the Northwest Passage in April.

After two seasons lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a busy summer. Field seasons in the Arctic are brief. The divers and conservators had just 11 days moored over the site of the wreck with their tender barge and the RV David Thompson, Parks Canada’s 29-meter research ship.

But over that time the team squeezed in 56 dives. Each dive lasted about two hours — possible only because the divers used suits heated by warm water pumped from the surface.

Harris said the ship seems to have been left in good order. Doors and drawers were closed, everything squared away. A total of 275 artifacts were recovered. The steward’s pantry was a main focus of the summer and much of what was recovered from there is tableware — stoneware plates, platters and serving dishes.

Painstaking work

The divers also began excavating the officers’ cabins. In the one that would have been occupied by 2nd Lt. Henry Thomas Dundas le Vesconte, whom Franklin charged with map-making, they found a green box that at first looked like a book.

“My partner and I realized that it’s not a book at all,” Harris said. “It’s actually a set of drafting implements — the professional tools of the trade for a ship’s officer. It’s quite possible these are the tools used to map their way through the Northwest Passage, which I think is fantastic.”

Jonathan Moore, a Parks Canada underwater archaeologist, observes a washing basin and an officer’s bedplace on the lower deck of the wreck of the HMS Erebus in September of 2022.

Divers use a vacuum dredge to clear away much of the accumulated sediment. The work, however, remains slow, painstaking, and delicate. The leather folio was excavated bit by bit with a spoon.

On one dive, Harris was handling the dredge when he suddenly stopped.

“I started to see what looked like a piece of paper almost fluttering in the movements of the water. This is very, very
delicate.”

That paper surfaced in a Ziploc bag and is now being analyzed. 

There are years of work to do, Harris said. Divers have only poked their masks into a few square meters of a wreck 36 meters long, nine metres wide and five metres deep.

‘A remarkable thing to experience’

Much remains in the officers’ cabins. The sailors’ chests, which held their personal belongings, are still mysterious. Divers haven’t even entered the bottom deck. And then there’s Terror.

“There’s so much material in either of these ships,” Harris said.

HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, shown in the Illustrated London News published on May 24, 1845, left England that year under the command of Sir John Franklin and in the search of the Northwest Passage.

Retrieving it from the icy deeps is only part of the job. The artifacts have to be conserved, studied, and analyzed at Parks Canada’s lab in Ottawa, where this summer’s haul now sits. Harris has dived into the wreck many times and acknowledges he gets focused on the task at hand. Nothing, after all, will ever match his first sight of Erebus.

“I couldn’t see where the wreck was because the visibility was poor,” he recalled. “I had to pick a direction and go, and then I saw the first plank lying on the sea floor.

“I followed it to hand over hand until all of a sudden, out of the gloom, there it looms. It’s towering over the top of you, the shadow of this enormous bulk of shipwreck lying proud on the sea floor.”

But the thrill never entirely fades. 

“You’re taken with this feeling that you’re in this hallowed space. Not just in view of history, but because here’s where human beings were confronted with their own mortality. It’s a remarkable thing to experience.”