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FATHER OF UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY TO SPEAK AT IUPUI

INDIANAPOLIS - Diving for history will be the focus March 6 when a widely acclaimed underwater archaeologist lectures at IUPUI.

George Bass, founder of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) located at Texas A & M University, will be the guest speaker for the John D. Barlow Lecture in Humanities at 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 6 in the Ruth Lilly Auditorium located on the lower level of the IUPUI University Library, 755 W. Michigan St.

Bass will present "Nautical Archaeology and the Phoenicians of Homer," a discussion of the world's oldest known shipwreck near Uluburun, Turkey. Bass' discovery of that ship was the subject of a 1991 "Nova" special, "Ancient Treasures from the Deep."

"The Uluburun wreck is important for containing material from Egypt, Canaan, Cyprus, and Greece, showing the scope and nature of ancient trade in the era of the Pharoah Tutankhamun and the legendary Trojan War," said Robert Sutton, associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures in the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The School of Liberal Arts is sponsoring Bass' campus lecture.

For the past four decades, Bass, considered the father of the systematic scientific excavation of ancient shipwrecks, has pulled unique historical treasures up from the deep while pioneering related techniques and equipment.

Bass has been the most influential person in entrenching underwater or nautical archaeology as a respected scholarly discipline, said Cemal (pronounced Jamal) Pulak, INA vice president and assistant professor with the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M.

"Although George Bass is not the first archaeologist to initiate an excavation underwater . . . he was certainly the first to learn how to dive in order to personally excavate a shipwreck site, just like archaeologists excavating their own sites on land," Pulak told a Texas A & M spokesperson.

Bass was also the first to strive for underwater excavations (applying) the same meticulous excavation and documentation standards as those used on land, Pulak said. Consequently, he was instrumental in developing many of the techniques and equipment used in underwater excavations today.

"It is for these reasons that many consider George Bass to be the father of underwater archaeology," Pulak said.

Bass' work has been chronicled in numerous publications including National Geographic, Scientific American, Archaeology and the Johns Hopkins Magazine. He's also won numerous awards including the Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement from the Archaeological Institute of America and the Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorers Club.

Bass' numerous discoveries and inventions include the recovery of the world's only known gold scarab (beetle-shaped charm) inscribed for the Egyptian queen Nefertiti; the development of a mobile photography stand that traveled on the ocean floor; and the invention of the "telephone booth" that allowed underwater divers to talk to people aboard the accompanying ship. He also developed a four-person decompression chamber that allowed divers to resurface and decompress more comfortably.

Bass retired from Texas A & M Feb. 2. He does not plan to return to teaching, but will continue the excavation of a ship that sank between 450 and 425 B.C. and lies off the western coast of Turkey.

The John D. Barlow Lecture in the Humanities is an annual event honoring Dean Emeritus John D. Barlow for more than 30 years of service to IUPUI and the School of Liberal Arts. It was established upon Barlow's retirement through the generosity of friends and colleagues.

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