George Bass (archaeologist)

George Fletcher Bass ( born December 9, 1932 in Columbia, South Carolina ) is an American underwater archaeologist.

Life and work

Bass is generally regarded as the originator of maritime archeology. He has been working since the early 1960s, including in the Mediterranean. His first excavation under water was a boat at Cape Gelydonia ( Kilidonia Burun ), a wreck dating from the Bronze Age, which was described in 1959 for the first time by the American journalist Peter Throckmorton, who had the wreck met by the Turkish sponge divers Kemal Aras. Throckmorton convinced the budding archaeologists that the underwater archeology should be operated according to the same standards as the terrestrial archeology. 1960 both started the excavation at Cape Gelydonia, this was completed in the summer of 1960. The work was continued in 1961 Yassiada, an ancient Roman harbor at Bodrum on two Byzantine wrecks, where the participation of the German Waldemar Illing very many now regarded as standard techniques of underwater archeology were developed. Filmed by Claude Jean Jacques Flori Duthuit with this film shows beginnings impressive.

A subsequent recovery was the ship of Uluburun. He was professor of " Nautical Archaeology " at Texas A & M University.

Awards and honors

• Archaeological Institute of America 's Gold Medal for Outstanding Archaeological Services (1986 )
• The Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award
• La Gorce National Geographic Society Gold Medal
• J. C. Harrington Medal of the Society for Historical Archaeology
• Honorary Doctor of Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Istanbul
• Honorary Doctor of the University of Liverpool
• National Medal of Science ( 2001). it was presented by the President George W. Bush in the White House on June 12, 2002