Marine Expeditions with Participation

of the Archaeological Museum Varna

Theodor Rokov Varna, Bulgaria

Expedition "Pontica" – 1975

Voyage with the yacht "Vega“

Crew - 2 people

Route - Ancient sea trade route along the Black Sea west coast

Expedition organizers and participants : Dimitar Klisurov and Assen Dremdzhiev

Expedition consultant: prof. Michael Lazarov, Archaeological Museum Varna

Reason for the expedition: numerous ancient artifacts have been found on the sea bottom along the Black sea coast.

Expedition's main task: Investigation of the ancient sea trade route and ancient navigation methods

Expedition "Argonautica" – 1984 Voyage with yacht "Aurora“ Crew - 6 people

Route - part of the Argonauts’ voyage in the Pont Euxine / Black Sea Organizer of the expedition - Theodore Troev, journalist

Consultant and participant in the expedition - prof. Michael Lazarov, Archaeological Museum Varna

Reason for the expedition: to meet Tim Severin and the crew of the „Jason“expedition in Georgia

Expedition's main task: experience and information exchange on the ancient shipbuilding and navigation.

Expedition "Spondylus" – 1988

Voyage with the diving ship "Kamchia“

Crew - 10 people

Route - from Varna to Athens and back through the Black, Marmara and Aegean Sea.

Organizers, consultants and participants in the expedition - prof. Michael Lazarov and Ivan Ivanov, Archaeological Museum Varna

Reason for the expedition: a lot of bracelets made of the Mediterranean mussel "Spondylus“ were found near Varna, in a Chalcolithic necropolis.

Expedition's main task: investigation of the marine trade contacts between the Mediterranean and the Balkans during the Prehistoric age.

International expedition “Danubian Odyssey” – 2010

Voyage with a replica of the prehistoric type ship "Ulysses"

Crew - 5 persons / 4 Ukrainians and 1 Bulgarian

Route - from Belgrade, Serbia to Varna, Bulgaria down the Danube river and the Black Sea.

Organizer of the expedition - center for experimental investigation of ancient navigation - Odessa, Ukraine.

Coordinator and participant in the expedition – Theodore Rokov, Archaeological Museum Varna

Reason for the expedition's: numerous artifacts with images of the bird-head ships were found in a large area from Central Europe to the Mediterranean and Egypt (Date: Bronze age). Expedition's main task: reconstruction of the vessel type and exploring of it’s seagoing qualities.

Experiments in Bulgaria to build a replics of Ancient ships

and to travel with them

Series of voyages with the Mediaeval Slavic boat replica "Perun"

1987 - from Kiev to Varna down the Dnieper river and the Black Sea

1988 - from Budapest to Vidin down the Danube river. 1989 - from Thessaloniki to Athens in the Aegean Sea

Crew - 7 people

Organizer of the expedition - d-r Garo Tomasyan, Plovdiv

The boat was built by an old Russian master-shipbuilder in the Kazashko village near Varna

Reason for the expedition- numerous historical records of Slavonic shipbuilding and shipping in the Mediaeval age

Expedition's main task: reconstruction of the medieval Slavic boat and exploring of it’s seagoing qualities.

Project "Rhezos".

Modern replica of Thracian ship.

Float in the water from autumn 2014.

Voyage from Kavarna, Bulgaria to Troy, Turkey. Expedition will start probably summer 2016

Crew – 18 people

Organizer of the experiment: Atanas Dimitrow, TV Producer

Troy

Reason for the project - ancient myths of the Thracian King Rhesos Project's main task: reconstruction of the Thracian boat

and exploring of it’s seagoing qualities

Paper from International Symposium Black Sea. Common Borders. Common Solutions

March 2015, Varna, Bulgaria

Teodor Rokov Varna Regional Historical Museum

Department of Archaeology