D.T.Devendra Memorial Lecture, 1999
Arqueologia Subacuatica
Por Somasiri Devendra, B.A.(Cey)
Lieutenant Commander (Rtd), Sri Lanka Navy
ICOMOS International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage
It is a bright day when a son feels that he has, in some small way, done something
that would have earned a father's approval. Today, is one such day.
D.T.Devendra was a self-taught archaeologist, not an academically trained one. Although he served the Archaeological Dept. for a scant eight years, from 1948 to 1956, it is as an archaeologist that he is still remembered. Beginning as a historian-researcher in the 1920s, he continued researching till he died in 1972: his last contribution to the RAS journal being published posthumously. We, his children, were the major beneficiaries of his wide-ranging interests, particularly in the expanding frontiers of knowledge. It is these that we cut our teeth on, in our nightly conversations round the dining table. He believed very strongly in taking Archaeology along uncharted paths. I vividly recall his happiness at the recruitment of the first man of science, Dr. Rajah de Silva, into the Dept., and his excitement over the first scientific test pit dug in the Anuradhapura citadel by Claudio Sestieri, who was Commissioner for a short while.
It was during these dining table seminars that we discovered maritime archaeology and SCUBA diving, captivated by Jacques-Yves Cousteau's "The Silent World" and seduced by the phrase "the rapture of the deeps". But I never foresaw a day when I would have a role to play in helping along this discipline in this country. But that day did, eventually, come, and that is why I feel that I have repaid him, in my own way, for opening wide the windows of my mind. But for him, I would not be standing here.
D.T.Devendra was born in 1901 in the village of Kalegana, Galle, in a modest
house, to modest parents who believed in Education as the great liberating influence
in this country. After leaving home to work as a teacher, he lived in many parts
of the country, but never returned to Galle, though he painted a vivid picture
of his childhood in a manuscript meant for our children. It was only while I
was working on the maritime archaeology project in Galle, that I made a successful
attempt to follow some of its slender clues to find the house. And so, in a
way, because of maritime archaeology, in the end I found my beginnings.
The beginning
The Galle I discovered and which I speak of, is not just the Fort. Yes, the Fort is part of it, because it was built for the main purpose of securing the port of Galle. It was here that the Arabs had held sway, where Ibrahim had hosted Ibn Batuta; where Admiral Cheng Ho called and erected the Galle Tri-lingual Inscription which he had brought all the way from China; where "Ja Kotuva"; is still a place name; of where the Portuguese built the first Fort to protect their ships which they scratched on the walls of the desecrated Natha Devale in Kandy; where the Dutch drew up plans to expand the Fort and dig in, a mere eight years before its surrender. It is the international port of Galle I speak of.
The Galle Harbour Project, my subject today, is an ambitious one. It began almost informally, with Prof. Ken McPherson of Curtin University of Technology, at Perth, in Western Australia, discussing with Dr. Roland de Silva and Prof. Senake Bandaranayaka, the possibility of training Sri Lankan archaeologists in maritime archaeology. A loose consortium of institutions was formed with the CCF, the PGIAR and the Archaeological Dept as the Sri Lankan participants and the Maritime Archaeological Dept. of the Western Australian Maritime Museum as the foreign collaborators. Some funds were found by each but they lacked two types of persons: namely, counterpart Sri Lankan divers to dive with the Australians and someone who could co-ordinate the pilot project. The counterpart divers came from the Sri Lanka Sub Aqua Club, led by Mr.Gihan Jayatilaka and the co-ordinator was myself, from the Maritime Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka, a newly formed association. Our aims were three-fold:
(1) To train a group of archaeology students from the universities, who would form the nucleus of a maritime archaeological unit in the future.
(2) To conduct the training in Galle, because a commercial port was due to be built where, under the waters, lay a part of our maritime heritage. A part of our project, therefore, was to build up a data bank of shipwrecks in Galle waters.
(3) To use the experience gained to frame a policy and legislative framework covering maritime archaeology.
We found a most accommodating guesthouse at "Nooit Gedacht" in Unawatuna, a house dating back to Dutch times. And we set sail in uncharted waters in search of an underwater world.
Work during the first few years
The work we began, tentatively, soon had us all in its grip. After the first season, it was decided that its success entitled us to expand it into an on-going programme. Hence we worked in 1992 and 1993 but all collaborators ran short of funding in 1994. In 1995, the same scenario was developing, when Jeremy Green and I decided that we would do even a very modest programme to keep the project alive till better times came. Our optimism was rewarded and in 1996, 1997 and 1998 we have done very good work and the 1999 season will commence next month. The 1992-93 period, thus, forms one particular segment and the post-1996 period forms a qualitatively different one. Let me begin with the first.
During this period, our focus was on training a group of university students
in archaeology, conservators from the Archaeological Dept. and CCF, and educating
the volunteer divers of the Sub Aqua Club. We had to start from scratch: the
archaeology students did not know to swim. So most of the first season was used
up in training them to get used to a marine environment: to lose their fear
of the sea and to be comfortable in it. By the end of the first season, they
were able to snorkel confidently and to get used to, without actually working
in, Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, or SCUBA for short. Although
they could not work underwater, they were given classes in a large variety of
subjects pertaining to marine archaeology. Classroom instruction, using the
translation skills of the University lecturers, such as Dr.Moira Tampoe, videos,
slides and demonstrations took place daily. They were introduced to Visual,
Electronic and Acoustic Search Techniques, Position fixing using Transits, Sextants,
Photographic Angle Measurement, Theodolite and Distance-measuring systems, and
the Global Position Fixing systems. They were also educated on the objectives
and methods of pre-disturbance surveys under water. The conservators were easier
to teach as they already had had work experience. They were taught about Storage
and Treatment Facilities, Equipment requirements, Conservation Chemicals, Environmental
Influences, Movement of Water, Sea-bed Composition, Biological and Chemical
influences, Analysis of Artifact Material and how to improve their survival
potential, Wood identification and Organic Residue Analysis. For this we set
up a small laboratory in "Nooit Gedacht". Underwater photography techniques
and introduction to underwater camera housings were also taught. Of course,
we merely scratched the surface, but it was a beginning. I will, however, try
to focus on the fieldwork we did and our finds.
After diving on a number of sites, we heard about from different people and from our own surveys, we finished the 1992 season with a total of ten sites and over 150 artifacts which were registered on a computer based artifact registration. Let me deal with the sites, first.
Site A was a known site, because the Sub Aqua Club had been operating there as a training site. They had found a number of artifacts belonging to widely differing periods of time: for instance, a Southern Sung Dynasty Celadon bowl, almost the twin of the one found at Yapahuwa, and almost intact. In larger quantities they had found clay smoking pipes, and some chillums, that were attributable to the 17th.to 19th. centuries and Dutch, British and Turkish types. There were also many ceramic shards. All these were found around the wreck of an iron ship, from which none of these could have come. It was a difficult site to explore and it was assumed that the iron wreck may have another, older wreck, under it and that currents made the lee of the wreck a natural accretion site.
Sites B, C, D and I were not of much interest to us as we were looking for remains of wooden ships. Site H was a mooring site made of two canon bound together, and Site J, another possible accretion site, proved unproductive.
Site E was the first wooden ship we located, shown to us by a group who were diving for coral and coal. Unlike today, diving was freely permitted in Galle in 1992-94 and many local divers were making a living by stripping all movable artifacts from the wrecks for sale. So there is little to be found in that line, now. We were also surprised to find that the sea floor of the harbour was full of coal, which were collected by divers and sold to blacksmiths. To get back to Site E: what we found was the remnants of the bottom half of a ship, including the keel, the garboard strakes (that is, the lowest layer of planking next to the keel), eighteen floor timbers and several structural elements. Copper and brass bolts and treenails, something that looked like a concreted cable and flint ballast was also found. Ballast - mainly rocks or other heavy items - were carried to stabilize and trim the ship. Later analysis revealed that the treenails were of Red Oak and Elm. There was also a piece of lignum vitae which could have been Asian in origin. Our tentative identification was that it was the wreck of a large European or American vessel dating to no earlier than the first quarter of the 19th. century.
Site G was the remains of another wooden ship. All we found was a mound of ballast stones, with some bottom timbers projecting from under it. A shallow test trench revealed pieces of copper alloy sheathing, one bearing the name of a French town, Nantes. In the late 18th. and early 19th. century, the submerged part of a ship's hull was covered with that are copper sheathing as a protection against shipworms. We also found a pocket of assorted fastenings. We found no more information to make a tentative guess of its size or identity
It was on almost the last day of our 19 days' work that we came across the most exciting find. We had been diving on Site F, a very turbulent area just seawards of Gibbet Island, now incorporated in the Fisheries Harbour breakwater. It was a site we had been told about by the late Mike Wilson (or Swami Sivakalki as he later became) and Dr. R.L.Brohier has referred to as "Hercules Kirkopf". We found about twenty cannon on the seabed, singly or in groups: there were little of the timbers to be seen and it appears that the ship was buried under the boulders used to build the breakwater. In between a group of three cannon we found something that only a trained eye could detect in Galle's murky waters. It was a bronze bell, covered with marine growth and a thin layer of calcium carbonate, with the loop for hanging it and the iron clapper missing, but altogether well preserved. After cleaning up, we found the words AMOR VINCIT OMNIA ANNO 1625 inscribed on it. The wording means LOVE CONQUERS ALL, it had been found also on a cannon from a VOC ship that had been excavated in Australia. The date is that on which the bell was cast. Typically yellow-clay Dutch bricks, called Overijselsteen (meaning from the Province of Overijsel) made it clear that the ship was a VOC ship and a Dutch Archivist-Archaeologist on the Australian team undertook to search the Archives here and in Amsterdam for a positive identification. This wreck was found marked on a 17th. century map, which identified it as the Hercules: thus vindicating Dr.Brohier's description of the site as "Hercules Kirkopf". The full story of the wreck was later discovered: the date of her sinking ( 22nd. May, 1661), the Pilot who took her in hand, the sudden change in wind, the orders given by the Pilot, the loss of two anchors, the loss of a valuable cargo of fine cinnamon and the death of many men. No wonder the site was marked, on maps and charts as a "Kirkopf", meaning Churchyard, or graveyard. Her size, her date of building, her crew, her sister ship, the voyages she undertook and the several Commissions of Inquiry into her sinking are all recorded in the meticulous style typical of the Dutch. During the next season we found two sounding leads on the site: there are lead weights on rope used to find the depth and nature of the seabed.
Apart from diving, we also undertook two other very important tasks during this period. One stemmed from the discovery of a hundred-year old model of a Yathra Dhoni, from Kumarakanda Temple at Dodanduwa, still in the Galle Maritime Museum. It was an excellently and accurately constructed model, 150 cm long, 35 cm at its broadest point and 20 cm from keel to highest point of the hull. For those not familiar with a Yathra, I might add that it was an outrigger-equipped sailing ship that is similar to the famous Borobudur ship. It has been mentioned by Pliny, depicted by Adm.Paris in 1843, photographed by J.P.Lewis in 1913 and been in use as a cargo carrier between India, Maldives, Malacca and Sri Lanka till the middle 1930s. This model was meticulously measured and subjected to analysis by computer and a complete set of drawings of how to build one was generated. The computer programme also analyzed the sailing characteristics of the vessel and found it essentially seaworthy. Last year, we stumbled upon the first wreck of an indigenous shipwreck, at Ambalangoda. Unfortunately the fishing wadiya people got there first and there was no authority to enforce the law. We were able to photograph some of the few artifacts that remained in the hands of the people, but not much more. The valuable material had been sold off. I have my reasons to think it was the wreck of a Jaffna Thoni with cargo from the Maldives. But that is another story.
The other task was to study in situ a part of an old paruwa that was found in a little stream at Lathpandura, near Horana. It was in extremely shallow water but part of it was under a high bank and therefore could not be taken out. Those of you who remember a river paruwa, or "padda boat" as it was Anglicized, would remember that it was built atop what looks like two dugout canoes. These features, are called kada iruwa in Sinhala and it is one of them that we found. Though these craft were used as cargo-carriers till the 1950s, they are no more and the one we studied shows an older level of craftsmanship and some unfamiliar structural elements. As far as I know, it is, unfortunately, yet there. Fortunately, a much bigger one was found last year at Attanagalla and hence rescued and brought to the Colombo Museum. This has been radiocarbon dated to the 7th. century. From my studies of these craft, I would reconstruct it as about 120 ft. long and 40 ft. wide. Not only does it say something about how our rivers have shrunk in size since then but we have also to consider what sort of society supported such river-borne commercial activity in the South West in the 7th. century. Such discoveries must certainly lead to a re-writing of our history. It should be mentioned here that this date pales into insignificance when compared with the large logboat that is displayed in the Colombo Museum, which was also found in Kelaniya. That has been radiocarbon dated by Gerhard Kapitan to the 5th. century B.C., which makes it not more than a mere hundred years after the arrival of Vijaya and the parinibbana of the Buddha. Who built it in Kelaniya at that time? It's back to the drawing board for Historians.
The vast amount of work we accomplished in 19 days encouraged the second season. Our Report of the first season was published in Sri Lanka, but our second season, in 1993 was over before its publication. The Report of the second season, a shorter one, was published in Australia and a Report combining the work of both seasons published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology in England. During that season, we concentrated on finding more sites and studying the ones already found in greater detail emphasizing a scientific study of the environment of Galle Bay in relation to preservation or degradation of shipwrecks. Galle is an open roadstead and extremely rocky. While it was a haven for small wooden ships under the sheltering arm of the Fort promontory, larger 19th. century ships found it a nightmare. This finally led to its abandonment as our premier port. The whole of the Bay is of Charnokite, which is very hard variety of rock, and there are innumerable spikes and pinnacles on which a ship can founder. Over it lies a comparatively thin layer of sand and silt, which shifts according to the prevailing monsoons and currents, exposing different areas at different times. The water, too is very murky, visibility sometimes dropping to near zero.
Two things, however, made the season memorable. One had nothing to do with our efforts, but illustrates the promise of underwater Galle. It was the discovery of a Hindu bronze statue. The local divers, who make a living of plundering these artifacts, had found it. They had been trying to find the highest bidder. The unsuccessful bidder complained to the Police who confiscated the statue. The Director, Exploration, of the Archaeological Dept., Mr.Senarath Dissanayake was with us that day and and took over the statue from the Police. We were able to examine and photograph it. We were not experts in Hindu iconography and the most interesting thing to us was that, on its left shoulder, someone had deeply scratched XIV, the Roman numerals for 14. It is apparent that this was a catalogue or collection number, and that this formed part of a collection that was shipped out of Galle by a colonial official but which had fallen overboard from the boat which was taking them from the jetty to a ship which was anchored in the stream (i.e. at a point away from the wharf). Who was this official? Let me make a guess. We know that Sir Alexander Johnston, Chief Justice, shipped a lot of invaluable material on board the East Indiaman "Lady Jane Dundas", which sank in 1809 before reaching England. Galle was the premier port then and it is just possible that this is the only artifact of that collection that did not succeed in leaving Sri Lankan waters. So far, all I could find out about this ship is that, on 14th March 1809 she, along with fellow East Indiamen "Calcutta", "Bengal" and "Jane, Duchess of Gordon" parted from the rest of the ships at Mauritius and were never heard of again. There is a list of passengers lost but no mention from which port she sailed. I am trying to find out the cargo manifest of this ship, to verify. Naturally, all this is yet conjecture.
The other matter was even more memorable. In the middle of the season, we received an SOS from the Director-General of Archaeology, Dr.Siran Deraniyagala. He had received a request from an American company called "The Great Basses Treasure Company" to shoot a TV mini-series on Dr. Arthur C. Clarke celebrating his return to the Great Basses silver wreck site which was in protected waters. The proponents, using Dr.Clarke's name and standing, wanted to make the film and also mine the wreck for silver to finance their work. 70% of the silver was to accrue to them and the rest to the govt. They promised training, museums expertise etc. I can now reveal that the expert maritime archaeologist they wanted to bring here, has been put in jail for life, after a dramatic man-hunt, for the murder of his wife! Anyway, Dr. Deraniyagala wanted us to dive on the site and give him a report on its condition so that he could decide. This was a welcome change, particularly as the site was Sri Lanka's most famous one. The season for diving off the Basses was not quite right but the weather and visibility were excellent. Within the few hours left, we got excellent underwater footage and collected over 600 silver coins as well as making a plan of the site as it was. I will not go into the rest of the story because it is sometimes harder to sift fact from fiction - like the proverbial anglers, SCUBA divers are also given to tall stories! All I can say is that the project was scuttled, after I personally protested to the Prime Minister. We also located two bronze cannon that had been salvaged from the wreck, one by the late Cedric Martensijn with the blessings of the Archaeological and Museum Depts., and were able to examine and make measured drawings of them. It is the report of this season's work that was published in Australia and England.
Coming of age
As I said before, the year 1995 was the watershed. We had planned a modest programme and assembled a small team, essentially to keep the project in being. But the Container Port scheme for Galle suddenly assumed high priority. It was fortunate for us that the Minister of Cultural Affairs understood that the history under water would possibly be destroyed and he acted fast. In November 1995 we were asked to undertake a Rescue Archaeology project, within a given period of time, with the promise of funds being made available. He was backed by the Minister of Ports and Port Development and Cabinet sanction was obtained in a relatively short time. We acted fast too, and were actually in the water, in February, 1996, three days before the Cabinet paper approving funds was passed.
The Archaeological Dept. took over the administration of the project, with the influx of state funds, and the same team undertook the project. As time was limited, work had to be done with professional equipment and experienced maritime archaeologists. The training was suspended, though resumed later. A broad outline was sketched out by Dr.Deraniyagala which was broken up into three phases by us. Phase 1 called for a two-week Side Scan sonar survey; preliminary investigation, a four week pre-disturbance survey and sampling and a six month rescue and retrieval programme. Phase 2 was processing and conservation (which could not be given time limits, and which included the building of an on-site Conservation Laboratory) and publication of Reports. Phase 3 called for the re-modeling of the Galle Maritime Museum - a long-term programme.
It was interesting to watch how real professionals worked. First came the Side Scan survey. For those unfamiliar with this term, I would explain that Sonar is the underwater equivalent of Radar: it sends out sound pulses and, the returning echo picked up, and a line is plotted. During the war, sonar was fitted to the bottom of ships so that a submarine passing through the beam would be detected. Side Scan Sonar, however, requires a torpedo-shaped "fish" to be towed. The signals were not directed straight down, but sideways, angling downwards. Thus we could map the seabed for 100 m on either side of the boat. We used a Navy fiberglass dinghy with a canopy, and the "fish" was lowered over the bows. On board were the equipment printing the image, a Differential Global Positioning System which plotted our position every minute by reference to satellites and a lap-top computer on board recorded the data simultaneously. This was plotted on a chart. In this way, we crossed and re-crossed Galle Bay East-West 48 times, in tracks 100 m apart from each other, noting our position every minute. The positions were correct up to +/- 4 m. Later, using better equipment, we achieved a margin or error of +/-2 m. We covered a linear distance of 312 km and mapped 62,400,000 square km of seabed. The crew needed for the work was the Navy boat-handler and 4 others. Back at Base, all the data collected was superimposed on a 1:5000 scale Universal Transverse Mercator projection chart generated by a CAD package. The whole of the tracing of the seabed was examined and 160 sites worthy of investigation were noted.
Then followed the part where men mattered more than machines. Every one of the 160 sites had to be dived on, to see what was the anomaly recorded. This was done by teams, on sites selected according to priority. It was fortunate that, by this time, all commercial diving in the Bay was prohibited for security reasons, so we were left undisturbed. As expected, by far the greatest number were rock formations. Still, 21 sites worthy of further investigation were identified: they included three wrecks of wooden ships, the Hercules site, a mooring site made of cannon lashed together, a ceramics site, two stone anchors a number of iron anchors and shipwrecks.
One of our major drawbacks was the lack of an on-site Conservation laboratory. Unless conservation is undertaken once a waterlogged artifact is taken out of the sea, it deteriorates quickly. So far, all the items taken out had been sent, after first aid at Galle, to Anuradhapura where the CCF has the only real Conservation laboratory. Once we started retrieving artifacts in large numbers, and even of large-size, they had to be conserved in Galle itself. The plan called for the building of a Laboratory and money was made available for it. The Museums Dept. made a building available and most of the equipment and fittings were purchased. It is a modest-sized building, 140 ft. by 20 ft. - hardly larger than the conjectural size of the Attanagalla paruwa - with the walls and roof in place, and any contractor would have finished it in three months. However, I am sad to say that, from 1996 to date, the State Engineering Corporation has been unable to complete it, in spite of all payments asked for being made. It is a very poor indicator of this Corporation's attitude towards work contracted to government. My personal confidence in the Corporation measures "zero".
The reason why the Laboratory is needed is that not only wood, but also metal, ceramic and rock need to be treated. Six seasons have passed now since 1996 and most of the materials we wanted to retrieve yet remain at the bottom of the sea. Only those least liable to deteriorate have been taken out, and those found exposed on the seabed and likely to be lost. All these remain in water tanks and even in the bathtub of the Archaeological Dept.'s Regional Officer in Galle! So we go from the sublime to the ridiculous.
As far as fieldwork is concerned, we concentrated on three sites. The first of these was the area that was expected to be completely destroyed by the new port construction. Apart from the sonar survey we also did a Magnetometer survey. The Proton magnetometer is an instrument that detects anomalies in the magnetic field of the seabed, thereby indicating the presence of things completely buried in sand and therefore incapable of detection by sonar. While working on a boat, deploying two "fish" - magnetometer and side scan sonar in addition to the position fixing equipment on board - we were, in fact, working on several levels: on surface of the sea, recording the geography of the seabed, measuring the magnetic field below us and plotting our position by reference to several satellites. Disregarding the iron wrecks in this area, we concentrated on the ballast mound wreck we had found in Site G and the area in general. By this time, our archaeologists had not only earned their degrees but had been given more concentrated training under water and got their PADI certificates More importantly, they were working under water on training sites. Later, some of them, became quite good and worked alongside the experienced divers on the major sites. We had, by then, a hypothesis about the identification about this wreck, based upon archival research. This was that it was the VOC ship Gienwens , which had been abandoned after she struck a submerged reef when leaving harbour on 23rd. October, 1775. The ship had been stripped of timbers and the hulk filled with rocks and deliberately sunk to form an emergency jetty. Unfortunately, the exact position of sinking was not recorded. While it was possible that the French copper sheathing was the type used by the Dutch, and this ship was one of the first known to have been sheathed, our consultant geologist, Dr.Ananda Gunatilaka, identified the ballast rock as being of volcanic type, certainly not Sri Lankan. Since local rock had been used to sink the ship, this makes it unlikely to be the wreck of the Gienwens. Dr. Gunatilaka also says he was familiar with this sort of rock from Scotland, Italy, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Aden and possibly France. The rocks are also all spherical, indicating that they were produced for a particular purpose. The matter rests there, as the wreck is not financially worth recovering.
Our next, and most highly visible site was that of the VOC ship Avondster. It lies partially buried in sand, silt and organic matter and in poor visibility. She was wrecked on 23rd June 1659 after slipping her anchor at night while secured at the Black Fort anchorage. Eyewitness records in Colombo speak of a sailor detecting the ship drifting, trying to wake the Captain, who came on deck rather late and ordered counter measures, too late. She was an old ship, and broke in two upon grounding. She was loading for Negapatnam and had already been taking on board a cargo of arecanuts and arrack. The identification is exact in this case, as all the records are available, which indicate its position. What we found was a galley, or kitchen, few of which had been found intact in Dutch wrecks. Here, the hearth is intact and some of the walls are yet standing, showing constructional details. Both parts of the hull have been located, but no excavation has taken place because of the lack of the Laboratory. We have recovered only items found loose and have covered up the most vulnerable parts of the wreck to prevent further damage. Apart from the galley and substantial parts of the hull, we lave located the anchor, some broken barrels, musket balls, the axle of a gun carriage, cables, rope, Beardman jugs, Chinese jars, Medicine jars, a grinding stone, Chinese vases, hair combs, etc. most of which we recovered. This is likely to be a site we will work on for a long time. The question is: can we raise it, conserve it and build a museum round it? Money is the problem. The other possibility is to build a coffer dam of rock around it, like the way the small fisheries harbours are built, and continue working on it with closed-circuit TV cables from the site to the Maritime Museum, where the public can see what's going on. Something like the live coverage for cricket matches.
The next most important site is the stone anchor site. It is, as you can guess, where ships older than those of the colonial powers, would drop anchor, in the lee of the Fort promontory which is a natural phenomenon. Here we found several types of stone anchors such as a round, one-hole anchor, another square one, a western type trapezoidal anchor and, most importantly, several pieces of and one complete large Arab-Indian type. This is the centre piece of our collection and is very impressive. The shank is over three meters long, with sides of roughly half a meter and a quarter meter in width. There is a hole at the narrowest end for inserting a wooden stake to which the rope was attached. Nearer the broad end are square holes for inserting wooden flukes, or arms. Mr. Gerhard Kapitan, a world authority on these anchors, feels they are mooring anchors - that is, they were not carried on board and dropped from deck, but permanently placed on the seabed, with a buoy attached to it where ships would tie up, just as they do today. But there is much room for discussion on this very specialized subject. Many anchors of this type have been found round the western Indian Ocean: Mombasa, Oman, Malindi, Dwarka, Lakshadweep and in the Red Sea. Ours is the most complete, the biggest and, in terms of location, the eastern-most of those so far found. We undertook a study of the rock and Dr. Gunatilaka conclusively placed it as from Oman, possibly from the village of Syr. But one cannot date stone. This is where we had a stroke of luck. Excavating some millimeters under the site of the anchor we found two pieces of wood. One is 980 mm long and 160 mm at its widest point. The other is considerably larger, being 1.340 m long, 260 mm wide and 180 mm high. These fitted into the holes of the anchor and this is the first time that wooden elements were found in conjunction with such an anchor. We did not yet have the Laboratory to handle the conservation of this material and they have been sent to Australia for freeze-drying and study. We were hopeful that we could get a pre-colonial date from them and were toying with the idea that it could be 1000 years old. The date we got for the smaller piece showed why it is dangerous to speculate: it has been dated to 430 years before present, plus or minus 80 years. Taking the year 2000 as the present, it would be 80 years before or after 1570 AD, that is, between, 1490 and 1650. Of course, the report has to be studied in detail. If it is right, in terms of History, it would mean that this Omani anchor was laid just before the arrival of the Portuguese here, or that they were laying large anchors during the Portuguese period. This is a puzzle that I propose to leave for historians.
Most of the rest of what lies under the waters of Galle has been said by the visuals I have presented, and so I'll merely sum up. At one time we had a team of 28 working: they included Sri Lankans, Australians, Dutch, American and English persons, men and women. Institutions from Oxford and individuals from Israel have shown interest in joining. A German expression of interest is expected. The Project itself has changed from a Sri Lanka-Australia one to a Sri Lanka-Australia-Netherlands one. It is now no longer concerned with maritime archaeology alone, but is a multi-disciplinary study incorporating also history, shipping, trade, archival research, conservation, training and development of maritime museums. The geographical area of interest now encompasses the harbour, the Fort and the waterfront, as they formed one consolidated area on activity. It can be linked to a study of the string of ports along the south. We are particularly interested the subject of inter-Asian trade during Dutch times as there is so much material for studying it in Sri Lanka: in Galle itself and in Colombo. There were three types of ships that called at Galle during the Dutch period: these were the so-called "return ships", which did the long haul from Jakarta to Holland (represented by the Barbestijn and the Gienwens, which we have not yet successfully identified), the older vessels and purpose-built jachts for the inter-Asian trade (represented by the Hercules and the Dolphijn) and the ships used in the Malabar-Coromandel-Bengal-Sri Lanka trade which used local Yathra Dhonies, European sloops and worn-out jachts such as the Avondster. We have so many sites that we have exhausted the English alphabet, having come to Site Y at the end of our last season. Galle, undoubtedly, is one of the most exciting underwater sites in the world - for the archaeologist. You will notice that I have been silent regarding some of my material. This has been deliberate. Grave, Temple and Shipwreck robbing has a long and dishonourable history in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Just as we call ourselves Buddhists and yet ransack viharas and dagobas, westerners are not averse to plundering sunken warships which they piously proclaim as war-grave sites. I would like to remind you that, in terms of an amendment to the Antiquities Ordinance last year, you are committing an offence by gathering artifacts from the sea. Gather them, certainly, but they belong to the State. We are hoping to set up a programme where you will be able to become partners with the government and scholars on this matter.
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you all to a comprehensive public exhibition of our work at the Galle Maritime Museum, where you will be able to see the artifacts retrieved and the history they have revealed. The exhibition starts on March 10th. and will last a month.
Conclusion
Although I have tried to describe the work at Galle, I must confess that it is as a researcher that I got involved with this project. Certainly, I am no archaeologist, and my diving days were about twenty years behind me when I started. I cannot end without thanking the most important people who gave the initial momentum to the Project: the Hon.Lakshman Jayakody, Minister of Cultural and Religious Affairs, Dr.Roland Silva, Dr. Rajah de Silva, Prof.Senake Bandaranayake, the late Mr. M.H.Sirisoma. Their Excellencies H.C.R.M. Princen Ambassador for the Netherlands and David Ritchie, High Commissioner for Australia. Dr.Siran Deraniyagala, Dr.Thelma Gunawardena, Mr.Sirinimal Lakdusingha, Mr.Senarath Dissanayake, Mr. Gamini Wijesuriya, and Mr.Sunil Premasiri of the Archaeological Dept., Mr.D.Kandambi of the Maritime Museum, Mr.P.Jayasundera of "Nooit Gedacht", are the people who actually helped us on the ground. Dr.Hiran Jayewardene and later Chairmen of NARA, who were the first to realize the need for a legislative framework. The several Navy Commanders, Commanding Officers of SLNS Dakshina and the Commanders of the Southern Naval Area command since 1992 went out of their way to assist an old naval type in a way that can hardly be measured. The Navy, in fact, was our guardian angel. As Sri Lankan co-ordinator I would like to thank Prof. Jeremy Green, Karen Millar, Jon Carpenter,.Patrick Baker, all of the rest of the team from the Western Australian Maritime Museum, which is now nominated a National Centre of Excellence. I must specially thank Mr.Geoff Glazier of Fugro Survey who lent us all the equipment for surveying, free of charge. In the same way I must thank Drs. Robert Parthesius from the Netherlands, as also Drs. Ludowijk Waagenaar and Ms Yppie Attema. From our own team, I will only mention by name the consultants who, like me, worked most often without payment: Mr. Gihan Jayatilaka, Ms Nerina de Silva, Mr.Rukshan Jayewardene, Dr.Ananda Gunatilaka, Dr. Moira Tampoe, Dr. Martha Prickett Fernando, and the original trio from the Sub Aqua Club: Dr.Malik Fernando, Srilal Perera and Lakshman Perera. There are many, many more names that time does not allow me to mention: they include the very literally long-suffering staff of the Archaeological Dept., notably Messrs. Sunil and Wijenaike.
And at the very end, I must remember with gratitude those who cannot be here. They include the late Mahen Vithyanathan - now in the Great Beyond - and my fellow Naval Officers, Marty Somasunderam and Sri Kantha - now in the Great Down Under! - who introduced me to the magic that lies under the blue seas and gave me my breathtaking vision of a wreck - "a ghostly galleon tossed among stormy seas". Laughter and banter round the fire before falling asleep under a starry sky. Memories second only to those of the excited talk round the dining table half a century ago. Every step forward takes me back to my beginnings.
Thank you.
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