Underwater Archaeology: Mysteries of the Deep

Discover Pavlopetri (Greece), an ancient city submerged by earthquakes, and find evidence of its great textile industry and trade. Continue with Apollonia (Libya), with its structures and port remarkably preserved underwater. Then, visit Baiae, a sunken Roman resort town with richly decorated villas, and end with Egypt's Thonis-Heracleion and Antirhodos, revealing temples, palaces, and statuary.

See what underwater archaeology can tell us about prehistoric humanity. Learn how coastlines have changed markedly over the millennia and how many early humans lived in areas that are now underwater. Explore underwater sites revealing artifacts, settlements, and human remains in South Africa, Australia, and the Americas, shedding new light on the amazing story of ancient migration.

Visit the sunken city of Port Royal in Jamaica, submerged by an earthquake in 1692, and encounter the many artifacts that portray life in a historic haven for both privateers and pirates. Then, uncover the shipwreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge and learn about the day-to-day life of the fearsome Blackbeard and his pirates. Finish at the Australian wreck of the Batavia, the site of a tragic mutiny.

The history of early Scandinavian peoples is vividly preserved underwater. Explore the remarkable site of the Skuldelev ships, five Viking era ships that were recovered and preserved using cutting-edge methods. Then, view the Mesolithic site of Tybrind Vig, a submerged prehistoric village, and extraordinary finds on Doggerland, a sunken continent that connected Britain to Europe.

Investigate how archaeological work is done in cold and deep water. In arctic waters, find the Erebus and the Terror, two submerged ships lost in the 1840s with artifacts amazingly preserved by the cold and depth. Then, locate the Endurance in the Antarctic, the intact lost ship of the 1914 Shackleton expedition, and the remains of an Ice Age caribou hunting culture in Lake Huron.