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Well, some of you may remember that we have formed Hydronautics - Diving for Science and Adventure, Inc. in 2001. This is an article that is about our Muddy Waters Project around Staten Island and has a nice coverage within our project with the New York Institute of Anthropology. Greetings Udo http://www.siregister.com/news_story.php?nid=120&eid=31 Local Indiana Jones plans new adventures by Bill Franz | Register Island archaeologist seeks Indian artifacts under water He may not look much like Harrison Ford, but Ed Platt is Staten Island's version of Indiana Jones. While Indiana spent his archaeological career dodging snakes, roaches and rats, however, Ed has devoted much of his professional life as head of the New York Institute of Anthropology to staying one step ahead of what many would consider more menacing threats than any Jones ever faced - the backhoes, concrete trucks and bulldozers of Staten Island's developers. For more than 30 years, Platt, a resident of St. George, has been trying valiantly to save 12,000 years' worth of irreplaceable treasures - the remnants of past civilizations that have inhabited Staten Island - before they're forever submerged under the borough's tidal wave of crackerbox condos and tacky townhouses. Over the past several years, the Register has reported on a number of the projects in which Platt and the institute have been involved. They have ranged from excavations that yielded numerous items in the area around Conference House Park to work in the mid-Island area off Rockland Avenue to following the contractors as sewer lines were installed all along the South Shore. Despite the odds against him, Platt has managed to rescue a surprising number of sites and artifacts, some of them just in the nick of time, from the marauding machines. And now he is turning his attention seaward. This spring Platt and the institute will be starting a new phase in their archaeological field studies around Staten Island. They will be going underwater along the Arthur Kill and Kill van Kull in a joint project with an organization called Hydronautics - Diving For Science and Adventure, Inc. "I'm really excited about this," Platt told the Register. "We expect to locate a number of very important archaeological sites which are not accessible by land." Hydronautics is a newly founded organization of professional divers whose purpose is to "provide the scientific community in the northeast region of the United States with dive services free of charge for research projects in lakes, rivers, coastal and offshore environments," according to its founder and president, Udo Rotmistrenko. The other members and co-founders of the Hydronautics Dive Team include George Horn, technical director; Clifford Beshers, director of dive protocols; Michael P. Rainone, director of diving technology; and Trace Malinowski, technical director. Other volunteer divers work on projects both above and below water to accomplish the research objectives of the organization. Funded by private contributions, sponsors and its members, Hydronautics is a gift from the gods of archaeology to Ed Platt and his institute, which has had difficulty securing its own funding over the years, a fact that's hardly surprising given Platt's penchant for bravely speaking out against corrupt politicians and ignorant builders. For the past two years, working with Platt, Hydronautics has been preparing for the project to which it gave the code name "Muddy Waters." The Muddy Waters Project is aimed at recovering artifacts from PaleoIndian settlements that are estimated by Platt to be between 4,000 and 12,000 years old. The fact is that over the centuries, due to erosion, shifting land masses and glacial movement, the shoreline of Staten Island has changed greatly. Many areas now underwater were once high and dry and, Platt predicts, may well be the resting places for important objects from past civilizations. The shallowness of the water at the sites selected for exploration and the nature of the bottom at those locations gave rise to the "muddy waters" monicker because the divers expect to encounter difficult visual conditions there. The project was originally scheduled to get underway in spring 2002, but delays lasted into the winter months, causing it to be rescheduled for the same time this year. "This is a very valuable historical site, which is threatened by land developers and commercial interests," said Rotmistrenko. "For that reason, until we are getting 'clearance,' we cannot disclose the actual location, hence the code name ' Muddy Waters Project'." Neither Hydronautics nor Platt would reveal the specific locations where the dives will take place. Said Platt, "The conservation and preservation of archaeological sites, while it should be a first priority, is in fact a very rare occurrence. Preserving our past architecture and most sites containing archeological evidence is in conflict with what some see as 'progress.' Government agencies and private investors preoccupied with development projects generally leave concern over archaeological destruction as a last priority." Platt points out that as early as 1958, Dr. William A. Ritchie, the former New York State Archaeologist, was writing that it was important "to salvage and make available as much data bearing upon prehistory and early contact relations of the Hudson-Coastal area as can still be obtained from the sources, now almost entirely limited to the systematic excavation of such aboriginal sites as have escaped total destruction." Platt said that it has become impossible to cope with the accelerating rate of destruction at archaeological sites being bulldozed for development on Staten Island. He believes that maximum research data must be rescued now, applying the most up-to-date scientific methods and standards, before it has all disappeared. "While the damage done to the environment can often be repaired or reversed," said Platt, "the daily destruction of our archaeological sites is permanent. We can establish wildlife refuge preserves, depollute our waters, abolish strip mining and carry out reforestation. We can always plant and grow a new tree, but we cannot grow more prehistoric and historic sites. Their destruction is permanent. The sites can never be reassembled for future scientific study. The potential additional pages of history are lost forever." After more than 30 years of archaeological field work, Platt and his New York Institute of Anthropology are knowledgeable about the frustrations of being alerted to exposed sites which are partially or completely destroyed by construction. That's why he has called repeatedly for the practice of letting archaeologists onto potential development sites for a reasonable period of time so that they can rescue important artifacts and cultural data prior to the arrival of backhoes and bulldozers. "Archaeologists are not against 'progress'," he concluded. "They are very concerned with the unnecessary loss and destruction of our heritage." Indiana Jones couldn't have said it better. copyright 2002 Staten Island Register | an elauwit newspaper -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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