The Nissia Shipwreck is from the Ottoman period. It is located on the southeast coast of Cyprus. The shipwreck has been known about by the local diving community ever since the 1980s.

The MARELab of the University of Cyprus, in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, undertook a research project on the site, for a number of reasons:

• the wreck has a high percentage of wooden hull preservation
• the wreck is exposed to natural deterioration processes
• the wreck is subject to looting and destruction.

The fieldwork season took place in September 2014. It consisted of an excavation of two trenches and the recovery of a cannon and many other finds. Students were trained in in situ preservation methods of organic material, and there was also the opportunity for public archaeology engagement with the local community. In all, this project brought together the different aspects of maritime archaeology in practice, including  3D digital recording methods.

Further reading about the Nissia shipwreck

• Dr Stella Demesticha – New underwater archaeological investigation of a medieval shipwreck at Paralimni, Cyprus

• Rare shipwreck excavated off Paralimni

• Paralimni-Nissia shipwreck

• Nissia Shipwreck

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In this short video, Crystal discusses the importance of preserving maritime traditions.

Do you agree with Crystal?

Further information on the preservation of maritime traditions

If you are interested in maritime traditions, you might want to visit Traditional Maritime Skills. This is the website of the Traditional Maritime Skills project. The aim of this EU project is to record wooden boatbuilding skills. These skills are in danger of disappearing as masters of the trade retire.

The £1m international scheme is part of a partnership between Cornwall, the Netherlands and Belgium. Skills will be recorded in boatyards across these regions. These skills will then form part of readily-available online training packages. This archive will help ensure a steady workforce of multi-skilled boatbuilders. It will also support regions whose economies have traditionally been entwined with their maritime heritage.

In Week 4 of our course, Dr Jesse Ransley explains why maritime archaeologists have become increasingly interested in working with boat builders and studying traditional maritime skills.

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The training at Ulster University was for three days. One day of familiarising with the equipment and the survey area, a day of surveying, and a day of data processing. We were quite lucky with good weather, surprisingly for Ireland. Kieran had chosen the survey area for the training at Lough Beg, Northern Ireland, where a log boat is supposedly located in the vicinity of a crannog in the lake. We surveyed around the crannog following or trying to follow pre-determined survey lines in as much as the wind, current, and depth of the lake allowed. Since the purpose of the survey was to collect side scan sonar data, it was necessary to reduce the noise from the motor. We ended up surveying on a speed of 2-3 knots, realising that the data we were collecting was not the best, but it was good enough for the training exercise. The shallow parts of the lake were quite difficult to survey. We did get to see many posts showing up on the display unit and lots of vegetation which was also getting stuck to the motor’s propeller.

The survey was followed by a day of data processing using ReefMaster and SonarTRX. The former software allows to quickly review the data, locate anomalies, and generate a bathymetric map. The SonarTRX on the other hand is used to process the data by editing the lines of surveys one by one in order to get the best results from the collected data. It then permits to generate a mosaic from the survey lines which can be imported into GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Working through the software took almost a whole day, familiarising with the tools, editing, and exporting capabilities. We tend to assume that once the data is collected, the hard part is over, but in fact processing the data is much more demanding, it is a science and an art (quoting both Kieran Westley and Rorey Quinn). The nice mosaics and images we see often in marine geophysics are the result of long hours of computational work by dedicated individuals.

Finally, this training was concluded with a visit to the Giant’s Causeway, a walk along the incredible Irish coastline, a visit to a local pub, and good times with good people, all thanks to the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Ulster, particularly Dr Kieran Westley and Dr Colin Breen, and to the Honor Frost Foundation for their support.

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