U.S. research vessel Hercules, of the RPM Nautical Foundation has been anchored in Gruz, just outside of Dubrovnik the last few days.
Following its first visit to the southern Adriatic last year, when it first came to explore the underwater world, its mission continues this year.
”This is about the systematic reviewing of the sea that has thousands of years been a fairway, once for the military, but mostly for commercial purposes, and I think there is an incredible amount of cultural treasures to be found at the bottom.” Minister of Culture Andrea Goldsmith Violić told press on board on Wednesday.
”In addition to the fortress and walls, we must protect underwater sites.” Said Goldsmith Violić, and because of that the project will next year go one step further, ”The next year we’re going to build a museum of underwater archeology, which will be located in Zadar.” said the Minister, adding that underwater discoveries can not stay at the Maritime Museum in Dubrovnik due to a lack of space and conditions that will be available at the museum in Zadar.
Local archeologist Domagoj Perkic told press that while nothing was found that day, things looked promising,”Today, we did not find anything because the visibility was poor because of rain, but we made shots and found a potential location. Perhaps it is a cluster of rocks, but given the size there is a strong possibility that it is an ancient shipwreck.”
Hercules will explore the underwater world next summer also, and even though in today’s sailing no sites were found, optimism flows following last year ‘catch’
”After analyzing the images, one should single out two shipwrecks, one near the Konavle rocks, a Byzantine ship from the 8th century, and the other at Lokvica, which probably dates back to the 16th century.” Said Luke Bekić of the International Centre For Underwater Archeology.
