Imagine finding a lion in the middle of the ocean, a crocodile in the desert, or finding a building in the cloud. It would be real shocking. Such is the case when workers found something unexpected in the Lower south Manhattan, where the Twin Towers once stood. While excavating the site of the World Trade Center, the excavators uncovered muddled skeleton of a 32-foot-long (9.75 m) wooden ship from 22 feet (6.7 meters) under the current street level.
The archaeologists quickly excavated the vessel as soon as possible to avoid any form of damage due to its exposure to air. The weak oak fragments were documented closely piece by piece by the researchers and taken out of the mud.
The archaeologists sent the timbers to the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory. These timbers would be soaked in water so that they could be prevented from cracking and warping further.
Few woods were also sent for further research work to New York to the Tree Ring Laboratory at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades.The fragments were dried slowly in a cold room and then cut down into thick slices in order to facilitate the study of the tree rings.
Meanwhile, the archaeologists are still unclear about whether the ship sank there accidentally or if it was purposely submerged.
The study was published in the journal Tree-RingResearch this month.
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