A team of tomb divers have been the first people to carry out underwater archaeology in Sudan. Led by experienced diver Pearce Paul Creasman, the team went to amazing lengths to access an ancient Pharaoh's tomb below a pyramid earlier this year.
Tomb divers are underwater archaeologists, who brave inhospitable and potentially dangerous conditions to discover the secrets of ancient burial sites. Their research is vital for historians to study historic civilisations and recover artefacts for scientific research and public display.
The dives normally take place under pyramids, the traditional burial sites for royal citizens. Although the tombs weren't originally underwater, over the centuries, the underground water levels have risen. This means that in order to retrieve the artefacts, specialist divers have to undertake the difficult missions.
The majority of pyramids are in neighbouring Egypt, so the archaeological expedition using divers this year is a first for Sudan.
Royal burial site
The dive at the ancient royal burial site of Nuri took place in January 2019. Nuri is located in northern Sudan and spreads across more than 170 acres.
Pyramids in Sudan mark the burial ground of Kushite royals, whose kingdom lasted for hundreds of years. They also conquered Egypt in the 8th century BC and ruled there for a century. The pyramids in Sudan differ from the more famous Egyptian pyramids because the kings were buried beneath them, rather than inside.
The oldest and largest pyramid at Nuri belongs to the Pharaoh Taharqa, the Kushite king who ruled in the seventh century BC, but it was the pyramid tomb of Nastasen, a Pharaoh who ruled the Kush kingdom between 335 BC and 315 BC, which was investigated in January this year. It was one of the pyramids built in the region between 650 BC and 300 BC.
At the beginning of July, Creasman revealed details to the BBC about his team's successful dive at Nuri. He had first visited the region in 2018 to assess the possibility of the tomb dive and decided to go ahead.
The Pharaoh Nastasen's stone coffin was unopened and undisturbed. Creasman had found evidence of gold leaf, pottery and glass figurines in his tomb chambers. Small figurines, known as "shabtis", are tasked with looking after the royals in the afterlife.
Creasman admitted thieves would probably have stolen the gold leaf over the years, but for the rising water level making the tomb inaccessible. Water had spread into the tombs underground from the nearby River Nile.
Specialist equipment
It was a difficult task diving into the tomb and specialist diving equipment had to be used to access the hot, dark, underground chambers - normal scuba tanks are too cumbersome. For the Sudan dive, the team used a hose to pump oxygen from the surface.
The team began by digging as deep as they could down the 65-step staircase leading to the tomb's entrance, but after 40 stairs, they struck water and knew they would have to dive down to reach the tomb.
Creasman described the tomb as "remarkable". It consisted of three chambers, each of which had an ornate, arched ceiling. He said each was the size of "a small bus" and was pitch dark. The divers had to use flashlights to illuminate the secrets inside.
A waterproof flashlight was attached to each wrist, while an emergency container of air, approximately the size of a can of hairspray, was fastened to each diver's back.
Fragile artefacts
The team had to be extremely careful with their findings, as the water had partially destroyed some of them. Remains of glass statues covered in gold leaf were found, but the water had badly damaged the glass, leaving mostly gold flake, so they were very fragile. The divers salvaged what they could and brought it to the surface.
These dives play a vital role in explaining more about how ancient civilisations lived. This was the first such dive in Sudan and with the Nuri kingdom covering such a large area, it is believed there are likely to be more underwater tomb sites in the region.
The tomb diving can be extremely hazardous, as the water reaches to the ceiling in most of the chambers. Every time one of the divers moves, even with the aid of a flashlight, clouds of ultra-fine sediment make it very difficult to see even items directly in front of them.
Following the dive into Nastasen's tomb, the team said their findings and the condition of the chambers and the artefacts retrieved showed that the tomb had remained untouched since it was first built. Discussions are underway to possibly return in 2020 to investigate the coffin itself, although nothing has been decided yet.
Military tomb divers
Tomb diving is also carried out by the United States military, who are searching for soldiers lost in action, to bring closure to their relatives. The army tomb divers have been diving around numerous former war zones - in particular Vietnam since the war ended there in 1975.
The tomb divers are mainly from the US Army's 7th Engineer Dive Detachment. Their job is to sift through the water and mud, looking for the remains of aircraft wreckage to try and find personal belongings of lost personnel to prove they're on the right track.
Divers travel around the world searching for the remains of American service personnel. There are still more than 1,200 armed forces members who haven't yet been found in Vietnam.
Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Kratsas, a master diver working for the dive detachment, said the families of loved ones killed in conflict in other parts of the world wanted their remains brought home to give them a proper funeral service.
Every year, the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency organises more than 70 joint missions around the world for dives at former combat zones.
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Tomb Divers: What have they Discovered?
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