The National History Museum published a new book on underwater archaeology

On 11 November 2023 in the city of. The book of Prof. Dr. Ivan Hristov "Ancient and Medieval Iron Anchors from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast" was presented at a thematic round table dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the National History Museum. The book was published with the assistance of Eng. Petar Kanev and the Black Sea Strandja Association. Its scientific editor is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Preslav Peev (Institute of Oceanology "Fridtjof Nansen" at BAS). The publication was presented by Dr. Milen Nikolov, Director of the Regional Historical Museum Burgas.
In the book prof. Hristov has summarized the data on the discovery and preservation of ancient and medieval iron anchors from the Black Sea area of Bulgaria.

Chronologically, the author presents specimens from the 2nd to the 13th century. Structurally, the book has two main chapters. The first chapter presents the development of iron anchors up to the Late Medieval period on the basis of known finds and their typology mainly in the Mediterranean water area. The second chapter is a catalogue of all the recovered anchors from the Bulgarian Black Sea coast until the summer of 2023. The book includes a description of the ship artifacts, their location and presumed relation to port areas used in certain historical eras. Information is presented on 84 iron anchors from the entire Bulgarian Black Sea water area, found at depths of up to 20 m. The exception are three medieval anchors found near the village of. Varvara at a depth of 90 m. Forty-four anchors remain outside the Bulgarian
Forty-four anchors have remained outside the collections of Bulgarian museums and collections. Seven of the anchors were found in the open sea (probably under the fairways of ancient and medieval ships), the rest of them are associated with the water areas of port areas near cities and convenient bays. Despite the impossibility of compiling a complete catalogue of the iron anchors found on our Black Sea coast in the last 100 years, the author assumes, with a certain degree of conventionality, that the data summarized in this book are a kind of representative sample of the type and place of finding of the objects.
The conclusion offers a summary of the data, information on chemical analyses carried out on some specimens and a detailed archaeological map of the finds.
The book uses materials stored in the collections of museums in Burgas, Kavarna, Varna, Nessebar, Akhtopol, Sozopol, Kiten, Primorsko, Tsarevo, Akhtopol and NIM. Archival information from the first organized underwater expeditions in Bulgaria in the second half of the 20th century and accidental discoveries underwater have been added.

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