(Editor's note: this posting is from 1996 and may not be up-to-date)

Diving club "Navarex"

The diving club “Navarex” has been existing since 1989, uniting the amateurs of submarine archaeology. The main occupation of the club is detection, registration and research of the objects of submarine cultural heritage in the Black Sea and adjacent area of water, development of technical and information activities in sea archaeological surveys.

Cooperating with the Odessa Archaeological museum of the Ukraine Academy of Sciences the club has been working for some years in a region of Zmeiniy Island, lockated in the Black Sea, where in the 6th century B.C. the temple of Achilles was constructed. Together with the Institute of Archaeology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the club “Navarex” investigated a submerged part of the known Old Greek city of Olbia (village Parutino, Dnepro-Bugskiy liman). The searches of the ships which were sunk in antique period were also organized on board the scientific–research ship “Tibia” near the coast of the Crimean peninsula.

In cooperation with the public cultural organization “Archeoclub d’Italia” under the patronage of Ministry of Cultural Heritage of Italy our club “Navarex” has been carrying out the investigations in the Black Sea for the last three years and plans to conduct the archaeological exploration of the ships sunk in the 15th century A.D. in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, as well as the sea archaeological survey of the Old Greek settlement of Akra on the Crimean territory.

The nearest working plan of our club is a joint work with “Archeoclub d’Italia” on organization of the submarine archaeological park in the Mediterranean Sea, participating in a complex marine expedition of “Archeoclub d’Italia”, Greenpeace, and the Hydrographical Museum of Monaco. The diving club “Navarex” expands its geographical activity and would be glad to have professional contacts with the diving clubs of various specializations, archaeologists, diver–amateurs, and any persons, interested in aspects of submarine researches and, in particular, realization of hydroarchaeological projects.

November, 1996