Archaeology and Biology in the Deep Sea The Ormen Lange Marine Archaeology Project Fredrik Søreide Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Marine Technology 7491 Trondheim, Norway fredrik.soreide@ntnu.no Torkild Bakken Norwegian University of Science and Technology Section for Natural History 7491 Trondheim, Norway torkild.bakken@ntnu.no Marek E. Jasinski Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Archaeology 7491 Trondheim, Norway marek.jasinski@ntnu.no Abstract—This paper presents the results and conclusions of a biological sampling project on the Ormen Lange deep-water shipwreck site. I. INTRODUCTION During the past twenty five years Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and subsea technology has been introduced in marine archaeology. Since then engineers and archaeologist have endeavored to advance from mere visual survey and random removal of artifacts with ROVs to full-blown robotic excavations. This was achieved for the first time in 2005 when a team from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology excavated an eighteenth-century shipwreck in 170 meters depths off Norway [2]. Fig. 1. Site location, with the Ormen Lange pipeline (Norsk Hydro) The shipwreck was discovered close to one of the planned Ormen Lange pipeline routes in 2003. Since the shipwreck was protected under the Norwegian Law on Protection of Cultural Heritage, additional investigations of the wreck site were necessary before the pipeline could be installed. Due to the substantial water depth of 170 meters SCUBA diving was impossible and mandated the use of ROVs to conduct all mapping, surveying, sampling and excavation. One of the persistent myths about deep sea archaeology is that the preservation conditions are more favorable in the deep sea than in shallow water. This article will discuss this based on the results from the Ormen Lange project. II. THE SHIPWRECK INVESTIGATIONS The shipwreck was first identified on side-scan sonar by a dense scatter of glass bottles. The bottles were most likely cargo of the ship, along with stoneware containers that may have carried wine, beer, champagne, cognac and brandy. The bow of the ship was characterized by the presence of four lead hawse-pipes through which anchor lines would have been worked and which would have been at the very bow of the ship. Clearly visible in the bow were the massive cant-frames and stem-timber and possibly the remnants of major timbers such as the apron and keelson in an unusually good state of preservation. Approximately 10 meters abaft of the hawse- pipes on the starboard side of the wreckage was the ship’s bell. Abaft, or astern, of the ship’s bell there was an expansive area of the ship’s timbers, some exposed and others partially or completely covered with sediment. This ‘mid-ships’ section of the wreckage contained innumerable small artifacts of porcelain, stoneware, pewter, glass, wood, brass/bronze and iron. As the ship had clearly come to rest on its port side and the hull was splayed out and open due to the deterioration of the upper decks and deck beams of the ship, the preponderance 978-1-4799-0002-2/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE