The city of Pavlopetri, underwater off the coast of southern Laconia in Peloponnese, Greece, is about 5,000 years old, and is the oldest submerged archaeological town site. The name Pavlopetri ("Paul's and Peter's", or "Paul's stone") is the modern name for the islet and beach, apparently named for the two Christian saints that are celebrated together; the ancient name or names are unknown.
First discovered by British archaeologist Nicholas Reynolds in 1967, and mapped out a year later by a group of experts from Cambridge University, it is unique in having an almost complete town plan, with streets, buildings and tombs.
Paul Olding's film traces the efforts made by Nottingham University archaeologist Jon Henderson, with an international team of experts from Australia and the United States, to reconstruct the city using computer-generated technology. The team make several reconnaissance visits underwater and use their findings to generate new three- dimensional plans. The result is a highly impressive effort, even though the finished result looks a little too contemporary rather than deriving from the ancient Greek period.
CITY BENEATH THE WAVES is part of a strand of documentary film- making that uses ancient history as a means to show off the technical wizardry currently available for scientists and historians alike. Its tone is triumphalist, perhaps a little too much so for my living (I'd have liked more historical inquiry and fewer shots of the technological hardware used by the team), but we cannot help but admire the effort, time and energy put in to achieve the finished result.
First discovered by British archaeologist Nicholas Reynolds in 1967, and mapped out a year later by a group of experts from Cambridge University, it is unique in having an almost complete town plan, with streets, buildings and tombs.
Paul Olding's film traces the efforts made by Nottingham University archaeologist Jon Henderson, with an international team of experts from Australia and the United States, to reconstruct the city using computer-generated technology. The team make several reconnaissance visits underwater and use their findings to generate new three- dimensional plans. The result is a highly impressive effort, even though the finished result looks a little too contemporary rather than deriving from the ancient Greek period.
CITY BENEATH THE WAVES is part of a strand of documentary film- making that uses ancient history as a means to show off the technical wizardry currently available for scientists and historians alike. Its tone is triumphalist, perhaps a little too much so for my living (I'd have liked more historical inquiry and fewer shots of the technological hardware used by the team), but we cannot help but admire the effort, time and energy put in to achieve the finished result.