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BLACK SEA 1999 From: Meg Watters Hello to all - To hear from a new voice, my name is Meg Watters and I am an honorary member of the MIT faction of the Sinop ‘99 Expedition. I met David and Brendan about a year and a half ago at a Remote Sensing in Archaeology conference and have been scheming with them ever since. I have a bit of a different background from the MIT crew, yet overlap with some ideas for further development of underwater remote sensing technology.
A brief background: I'm an archaeologist (terrestrial vs. underwater) and I do geophysical investigations using equipment including ground penetrating radar, magnetic, and resistance survey. I came on board with David in an attempt to adapt the techniques I use on land to applications for underwater subbottom survey. I have been very lucky to be able to do some magnetic survey on land, and today, my first magnetic survey under the water!!! David, Brendan, Jennifer Smith (from U of Penn) and I went out on the Saros, a Turkish research vessel that we have rented for survey (180 degrees from the other research ships – shiny brass, luxury cabins - have had a nice nap or two en route to sites... - white linens at lunch, fantastic food and the best tea and coffee service). We all
worked on getting the Saros' proton magnetometer up and running
in order to check out targets identified by the side scan last year. What
an experience! Going from land survey (hot, sweaty, tore up my legs on
the raspberry brush, tripped around in What can I say about the area? You've heard it is beautiful here, everyone is nice, etc... I've traveled around to many countries, and I would say it is - comfortable - when you go somewhere and just hang, the town is great, the countryside and its small grape vine draped teahouses that dot the hills overlooking the great, cultivated river valleys to the bright blue sea; the old beautiful arching Roman bridge that begins on land, arching over the old riverbed and leading straight into the sea and an old lost Roman road on the way to Sinop... it is just wonderful.
I'll sign off now, after threats from Brendan and David that I am not being "witty" enough, mind the obvious edits and look out for Brendan's humor... Meg
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the fields, foraged through the shoulder-high corn... but getting some
fantastic data and excellent images of structures and other features from
the Chalkolithic, Hellenistic, and Roman periods) to the sea (wonderful
breeze, nice padded bench, tea service, flush toilets - you get the idea...)
-- needless to say my interest in underwater research has skyrocketed!!!
