The Oceans Are the Largest Museum in the World

Sunken objects and ships, underwater villages—even 800,000-year old animal footprints! These are just some of the wonders hiding at the bottoms of the world’s oceans, seas, and coastal areas.

Beneath the ocean’s surface, in addition to shipwrecks loaded with stuff, there are also ruins where people once used to live. 5,000 years ago, the Earth had a lot more dry land because glaciers trapped so much of the water that now forms the world’s oceans.

Our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents spread across those lands and lived there. Today, on the seafloor that used to be their land, we can find camps, stone walls, hunting devices, and other tools they used for living.

What else is hidden at the bottom of the oceans? This is the focus of underwater archaeology, which dives deep into the search for important information about ancient climates and nature, how people used to live with and sail the oceans, and what life was like millennia ago.

Researchers discover and study human objects that slipped into the sea, such as mugs, pieces of clothing, musical instruments, ship propellers, binoculars, compasses, games, art sculptures, wooden boxes, and many others. In fact, it’s believed that the ocean has more cultural artifacts than all the world's museums combined!

Finding such ancient objects from the daily life of ancient people can tell us how they were fishing, cooking, traveling, repairing shops, fighting against pirates, and even throwing away their trash.

Thanks to deep sea technology, marine archaeologists have been able to unveil some mysteries that have been buried for centuries. One of these incredible technological tools for deep sea explorations, is the Hercules—a remotely operated vehicle with a pair of strong robotic arms that allow it to remotely and carefully collect samples from the depths.

As the name suggests, Hercules is very mighty! It can deliver up to 113 kilograms (250 pounds) of samples or tools to and from the seafloor carried in specially designed collection boxes and acrylic jars.

Special sensors located on Hercules measure pressure, depth, water temperature, oxygen concentration, and salinity. All these are vital details that can help scientists both onboard and onshore.

Many underwater archaeologists continue to be on a hunt to discover essential information about past civilizations. Would you like to become one of them?