History Under Water

Pull the lever on the console of Before the Bay and see how the Chesapeake Bay shoreline has changed over 15,000 years. Archaeological sites that are now in the bay and underwater were once on dry land.

Five portholes along the wall explain the process for finding historic underwater sites.

Step #1: Divers often use side scan sonar as well as maps and historical documents to locate a site.

Step #2: Divers measure and record the exact location of the site and make a detail map of the area before excavating.

Step #3: Underwater archaeologists excavate and bring up artifacts and timbers from the site. They record the location of each object so it can be plotted on the map.

Step #4: Waterlogged wood and artifacts must receive special conservation treatment to survive. Objects must be kept wet until they are treated or they will begin to deteriorate. Treatment of large objects can take a long time and require a large laboratory.

A curved wall of bubbling portholes displays four artifacts from underwater sites. The screens below them tell the stories of:

Mysteries from the Deep: This wine bottle encrusted with oyster shell was a random find located by oystermen tonging for oysters.

Church Neck Wells: This site was discovered in Northampton County when waves eroded a cliff. Evidence of barrel wells and tanning pits were found at the cliff base. One of the tanning pits yielded this child’s shoe dating from the 17th century.

Yorktown Shipwrecks: Here lies the story of Lord Cornwallis’ s deliberate scuttling of a ship during the Revolutionary War at Yorktown. The deadeye featured here was part of the rigging on the ship and controlled the ropes that raised and lowered the sails.

Chickahominy Shipyards: A survey project recorded the remains of two ships from the Revolutionary War period in the Chickahominy River. This oarlock told archaeologists how some of the ships were propelled.

 

History in Our House        History All Around Us

History Under Water      History Under Ground

History in the Lab               Education Main Page

Students are amazed by the change in the Chesapeake Bay shoreline in the last 15,000 years.






Underwater artifacts, like this shoe, clue young visitors in to what life was like for their peers hundreds of years ago.






The dead-eye pictured here here was excavated from a ship sunk by Lord Cornwallis in the Revolutionary War.





An oarlock excavated from the Chickahominy Shipyards told archaeologists how some of the ships were propelled.