Sometime early in the third century BCE, a ship carrying a cargo of amphoras (the ancient version of jerrycans) wrecked on a promontory just south of the bay of Butrint. Ancient pottery breaks but does not disintegrate and about forty of the amphoras remained visible above the accumulating seabed sand and were finally noticed in July 2007 during an underwater survey conducted by the RPM Nautical Foundation along the southern Albanian coast. In August 2008 I joined teams from the RPM Nautical Foundation and the Waitt Institute for Discovery in order to evaluate the potential of this shipwreck for archaeological excavation and to introduce myself to archaeologists and officials with whom I hope to collaborate in the future excavation project. In May - June 2009, by kind invitation of the RPM Nautical Foundation, I returned to Albania in order to assist (and learn from) these experts in their survey of the southern Albanian coastal waters. Their ultimate objective is to produce a map that will aid Albanian initiatives to protect their underwater cultural heritage. Mine is to make the excavation of the 3rd-century BCE shipwreck happen — because of its intrinsic historical value and as a training ground for archaeologists, Albanian and foreign, with an interest in the ancient and modern history of this coastline.
