MAN: 12,000 YEARS UNDER THE SEA
A Story of Underwater Archaeology
ISBN 059509449X

This book tells the exciting story of underwater archaeology from its first beginning when Greek sponge divers discovered ancient statues in the bottom of the sea to its ongoing marvelous present times. Burgess takes us on an enthralling tour through the earliest stages of hardhat divers' first finds to the deepwater discoveries of 12,000-year-old Ice Age Man remains in Florida springs. Readers share the action since the author worked alongside underwater archaeologists to record their gathering of these unique materials. "Man: 12,000 Years Under the Sea will appeal to all readers who like action and adventure." --Publishers Weekly. "[This book] gives us a peek at... the work done by sponge divers, treasure divers and underwater archaeologists. The excitement and hazard... is so clearly described that I was tempted to get a diving suit and join in." --The Sacramento Bee "[This book] is more than intriguing, it is a necessity." Mensa Bulletin. 332 pages. Paperback: 6 x 9-inches. © 1980/2000 Published by iUniverse.com.

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MAN 12,000 YEAR UNDER THE SEA is the dramatic story of underwater archaeology. Beneath the waters of the earth lies a vast store of information about man, his culture, and his history, which is only now being revealed through recent improvements in technological aids to underwater exploration. Archaeologists, historians, and treasure hunters are making new discoveries and developing old ones with refined equipment. Deep pools of Florida crystal springs show how Ice Age man lived over 12,000 years ago, while Roman argosies sunk in the Mediterranean yield statues sculpted centuries before Christ. Historians watch eagerly the treacherous exploration of a wreck of the Spanish Armada on the rugged west coast of Ireland or the search for the elusive Civil War ironclad Monitor in the unpredictable Cape Hatteras waters. Treasure hunters reap rich rewards out of fabulous hoards waiting to be uncovered from wrecks of the Spanish treasure routes by the new archaeology, and geologists use new techniques to investigate the many secrets of Loch Ness for an explanation of its most stubborn and famous one, the monster.

Robert Burgess has had a lifelong interest in the realm below water. These fascinating accounts combine the allures of science and adventure, and demonstrate that beyond the drama of the search can be the interpretation of the nautical archaeologist, based upon his learning and experience, that deepens man's understanding of his heritage and the world around him.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction by George F. Bass, President, Institute of Nautical Archaeology
Preface
1. Statues in the Sea
2. Cannons of the Gods
3. The Wreck Hunters
4. The Ship That Returned from the Dead
5. In Search of Ancient Time Capsules
6. Treasure Wrecks and the New Archaeology, Part 1
7. Treasure Wrecks and the New Archaeology, Part 2
8. The Lost and Found Ironclad
9. First Dive to the Monitor
10. The Armada Revisited
11. Treasure Wrecks: Management and Legality
12. More Than a Monster
13. Secrets of the Stone Hourglasses
14. Man on the Shelf
15. Archaeology at Depth
16. State of the Art: Today and Tomorrow
Bibliography
Index

FROM THE BOOK:

    "The scene before him in the shadowy world of the sloping rock-strewn bottom resembled a battlefield. His breathing quickened with astonished revulsion. Animal and human bodies were scattered everywhere, twisted arms, legs, torsos reached up grotesquely. Fingers and heads were sometimes missing, flesh seemed pockmarked with rot, all white as death.... Slowly he reached down to touch a woman's shoulder and recoiled in horror at the cold, seemingly petrified white corpse...petrified? Kondos touched it again. This time his heart quickened, but not with fear, with joy at the realization that it was a statue! They were all statues...half-buried in the mud, but real, ancient, honest-to-goodness statues!"

READER REVIEWS:

"Man, 12,000 Years Under the Sea will appeal to all readers who like action and adventure."
—Publishers Weekly

"In Man: 12,000 Years Under the Sea, Robert Burgess gives us a peek at...the work done by sponge divers, treasure hunters and underwater archaeologists. The excitement and hazard of underwater exploration is so clearly described that I was tempted to get a diving suit to join them."
—The Sacramento Bee

"Man, 12,000 Years Under the Sea is more than intriguing, it is a necessity."
—Mensa Bulletin

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© 2000, 2001 Robert F. Burgess.  All rights reserved.