Probe the seabed in search of archaeological treasures. This is what an international team of underwater archaeologists decided to undertake by excavating the banks of Skerki, off Tunisia and Sicily, after weighing anchor in the port of La Seyne-sur-Mer (Var), Sunday August 21.
In this place, many wrecks dating from Antiquity to the Second World War are to be discovered. This research mission brings together eight countries: Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia. Archaeologists from each Member State will work together to carry out this mission.
For sailors it’s a nightmare, but for archaeologists it’s an invaluable dig area. Michel L’Hour, the mission’s French expert, specifies that “Skerki bank or the Esquerquis bank in French, it is a very dangerous rocky bank for navigation since we are in the open sea, it is 40 cm below the surface so it is really a boat trap.”
At the bottom of the water we find wrecks from Antiquity but also from the two world wars since the bench of Skerki was the scene of naval battles. But today, the area is at the mercy of looters. “Autonomous divers told me to go to Skerki bank during the summer because there were amphorae at the foot of the rocks”, continues the French expert.
To protect this underwater heritage, Unesco has therefore set up this research mission and it is a first in this area. For the moment, there is no question of taking fragments. Archaeologists will first map the area. According Michel L’Hour, “the idea today is to try to draw up an inventory of the wrecks that can be found there and say ‘this is a Roman wreck from the modern era'”.
The experts will carry out this work on board the Alfred Merlin, a French underwater research vessel. The team of archaeologists is expected in Bizerte in Tunisia on September 3 to take stock of this first mission, before perhaps one day organizing underwater excavations.