Ormen Lange: investigation and excavation of a shipwreck in 170m depth

Final conclusions have not yet been reached. However, it seems likely that the ship is a merchantman of around 40 meters in length that was either trading on the Norwegian coast or passing by. Using the unique new technology developed for this project it is possible to conduct mapping, surveying, sampling and excavation of shipwrecks in deep water. The Ormen Lange project is the most technologically advanced deepwater archaeology project, and first major deepwater archaeological excavation of a shipwreck that has been performed world-wide. The only comparable projects are treasure related salvage operations, but these cannot be called marine archaeology. In fact, this project shows that marine archaeology in deepwater can be carried out with purely scientific goals and without economic motives. 14 shipwrecks have been discovered in the pipeline routes. This clearly shows that the potential of deepwater archaeology is high. Marine archaeological investigations should therefore be an integral part of all industrial development projects in deepwater.