Spotlights

Archaeologist of the Month: Michael Katzev

Not many can say that they were present and instrumental in the formation of a discipline, but Michael Katzev really was. His approach to the uncovering, recording, and reconstructing of an ancient ship enabled nautical archaeology to become a respected scientific discipline rather than just “wreck diving”.

We humans have a long and varied history when it comes to diving and going underwater; from the Ama divers of Japan, who had been diving since before the Common Era and were mostly women, to the Vikings, who utilized long periods of underwater travel in order to drill and sink enemy ships. However, diving as a method of archaeology was mostly viewed as a way to find “treasure” and loot shipwrecks and not as a serious or scientific method.

Born in Los Angeles on July 25th 1939, Michael Katzev wanted to know more about the untapped potential of what could be in the sea. He had a degree in Economics from Stanford University, earned in 1961, and quickly followed with a masters degree in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley. He learned that most surviving classical Greek bronze statues were found in the sea from studying for his master’s degree. So, he wanted more experience in finding artifacts underwater.

Therefore, he joined an excavation of a Byzantine ship at Yass1ada, Turkey where he found not only the love of his life, a talented woman named Susan Womer, but also his academic passion. He then went back to school to further his education and knowledge in his chosen field. He studied Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University for a year and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania to obtain a doctorate in Classical Archaeology.

Katzev and his wife were put in charge of managing and surveying multiple wrecks in the Mediterranean Sea. It was during this time that he was shown a bed of artifacts by a local sponge diver and completely outdid himself with his impeccable treatment of the 4th century hull of the ship that was beneath them. He studied the entirety of the ship, down to the exact placement of each plank of wood, in order to facilitate a reconstruction. He was able to successfully disassemble the ship, lift it out of the water, and chemically treat the wood so it wouldn’t rot in the open air. Aided by Richard Steffy, he was able to reconstruct the ship and put it on display.

In addition to that, he and Steffy also oversaw the construction of a to-scale replica in which they retraced the final voyage of the original vessel. This project, named Kyrenia II, shed light on how ancient peoples set sail and gave scholars new knowledge of the subject. The successful voyages of Kyrenia II as well as the exemplary excavation and understanding of the original vessel are what saw nautical archaeology put on the map as a respected discipline in its own right.

In the middle of the 20th century, nautical archaeology was just beginning as a discipline. S.C.U.B.A. had only been around for a short while when people realized that there was a whole world of archaeology waiting underwater. Michael Katzev was one of those people. From his first exposure until the end of his career he furthered the recognition of nautical archaeology and paved the way for further exploration.

 

 

 

References

Fagan, B. (2014). Michael Katzev & Richard Steffy. In The Great Archaeologists (pp. 165–166). essay, Thames & Hudson.

Marx, R. F. (1990). Free Divers In The Old World. In The History of Underwater Exploration (pp. 1–14). essay, Dover Publications.

Ruppe Carol V, & Barstad, J. F. (2002). Underwater Archaeology in the 20th Century. In International Handbook of Underwater Archaeology (pp. 3–6). essay, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

 

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Page last modified March 27, 2023