In the bay south of Cape Urdoviza, the remains of several wooden sailing vessels from the Ottoman period (1396–1878) are known. Between 2000 and 2003, the Center for Underwater Archaeology (CUA) and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), USA, jointly investigated one of these archaeological sites, the so-called “Kiten 1.” During the course of the work, attention was also given to a second sunken vessel located in close proximity to the first, whose hull appears to be almost completely preserved, with the deck still in place. Between 2015 and 2017, the international Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP) discovered and documented 38 vessels dating from the Ottoman period, which are likely to have been local Black Sea ships. In this context, a decision was made at the time to conduct an archaeological investigation of the second shipwreck near Cape Urdoviza, as—when considered alongside other studied sites—it offers the opportunity to shed light on Black Sea shipbuilding during the 18th–19th centuries. This period represents the final phase in the development of the Eastern Mediterranean shipbuilding tradition, spanning from the Early Byzantine era to the maritime globalization of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Ottoman archives contain no information about the technical or cultural aspects of shipbuilding along what is now the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Such an opportunity is provided only by nautical archaeology. It is precisely because of this scholarly interest that the Center for Underwater Archaeology collaborates with some of the leading nautical archaeologists and conservators of artifacts from the marine environment from Australia and the United States.
The Center for Underwater Archaeology in Sozopol and the American Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University are jointly conducting the second archaeological season of the “Urdoviza” shipwreck.
The underwater archaeological investigation, which began in 2022, was resumed in early June 2023 with joint funding from the Ministry of Culture and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), USA. The international expedition includes experts from Australia, the United States, and Bulgaria, and is led by Dr. Dragomir Garbov, affiliated with the Center for Underwater Archaeology and a member of the ICOMOS International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage, and Associate Professor Dr. Krum Batchvarov from the University of Connecticut and affiliated member of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA).
The international team of experts includes Dr. Brad Duncan, a maritime archaeologist and visiting lecturer at the University of New England, Australia, who is participating for a second year; Dr. Andrew Viduka, a conservator-restorer, member of the ICOMOS International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage, and visiting lecturer at the University of New England, Australia; and Dr. Ian MacLeod, conservator-restorer at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle.
A special guest of this year’s investigations was Professor Dr. Deborah Carlson, President of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, who became acquainted with the specifics of underwater heritage along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, and in particular with the research on the Urdoviza shipwrecks.
This year’s expedition also includes Bulgarian conservators Violeta Karailieva and Dana Zlatanova, who completed a specialization program in March and April 2023 at the Bodrum Research Center of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) and the Conservation Laboratory for Marine Archaeological Finds at the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.
As part of the Urdoviza archaeological expedition, the two conservators obtained diving certifications through the project “Maritime School of Underwater Archaeology” under the “Program for Recovery and Development of State, Regional, and Municipal Cultural Institutions” of the National Culture Fund (NCF), and participated in the investigation of the shipwreck.