“One wrong move and everything is destroyed”, describes archaeologist Sybille Legendre on her work in the seabed

From Tuesday, and for two weeks, the archeology and environment services of the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis, with the participation of the environment house and the support of the Nice academy, organize “Océan 21” in the occasion of World Oceans Day, organized on June 8. Events, debates and conferences around marine heritage, marine biodiversity and the preservation of this invisible heritage.

Sybille Legendre, head of the underwater archeology research service of the Nice Côte d’Azur Archeology Service (Sanca), will participate and unveil the latest discoveries of her team. She comes back with 20 minutes on this “fascinating” side of “the search for traces of Man” in the seabed.

What are the latest discoveries made in the Mediterranean by the city’s underwater archeology research service?

We have just spent four weeks between April and May, in the field, in the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer. This project is called “Villefranche IV” because it is the fourth wreck identified at this location. Originally, it was an association of divers, Anao, who discovered it in 2009. For this first year of research, supervised by the Department of Underwater and Underwater Archaeological Research (Drassm), we focused on basic matters: length, width, whether there is a keel or not, where the back and front are. Then we will try to find out where the wreck was built, with which tree, when. For this step, we will work with specialists in wood and ceramics, among others, for several months before submitting our report.

What can we say about “Villefranche IV” after the field excavations?

We note that the general condition is very degraded, the wood is eaten by the worms which makes the pickings difficult because it crumbles like a Gruyere. We also noted that there was a keel which can help us to delimit the perimeter of navigation. The boat is positioned such that the front looks towards the exit of the harbor, therefore towards the south. It was 20m long and five wide. For now, we try not to imagine too much what the story of this wreck was to avoid false joys. The conclusions will, I hope, be communicated in December.

Why did it take you eleven years between reporting the wreckage and starting the search?

The underwater archeology research unit was created between 2009 and 2010 but before investigating a wreck, you had to get your hands on simpler things. Indeed, the team that works in this service has professional skills in terms of diving but not necessarily in archeology. They are curious and it was necessary to sensitize them and train them before handling. One wrong move and everything can be destroyed, as we observe with “Villefranche IV”! We then started with the Saint-Lambert jetty, the first attempt to create a port in Nice in the 17th century. It allowed the ten members to find their way around the space and to work together. Then, we explored the Palais de la Jetée-Promenade, which dates from 1883. We worked there without seeing anything because the water was too opaque and we learned to take readings. The next project will be to reconstruct the coastal landscape and to do research modeling by creating a map. Today there is the Promenade des Anglais and the Pebble Beach, but in Roman times, what was it like?

Why do you think it is important to do this underwater research?

Thanks to this research, we can understand the place of humans vis-à-vis the marine environment. As there are no visual traces, the goal is to find them in the sea and to develop projects around these stories. It’s fascinating ! And then there is the added value of being in contact with all the people of the sea. More and more, it is divers who report discoveries or fishermen who put up furniture in their nets. From there, warships were explored. It’s pretty amazing to see the engineering over the ages. In my opinion, it allows us to understand our environment while noting that we are taking models that have already existed.