We showed the film on Yassi Ada to our Japanese friends. We invited divers, captains, and some other people. All the diver friends enjoyed the film, and they were impressed at what INA did in 1960’s. They did not know about the scale of operation that INA had at that time. The film is old, of course, but it seem like they did not care much. They saw George and Claude much younger than they are today. I thought it was a good idea to have this party because I think they realized what Nautical Archaeology is about and they have great respect to the pioneers of this field of study. It’s difficult to explain what is Nautical Archaeology and how the project is organized. Showing a film can be powerful. I should put Japanese subtitled on this film, because not many people understood the details. But I was surprised that they got the main ideas. Well, I should mention to them that there are better/proper ways of carrying an amphora to the surface than what they showed in the film.

Now, the days that we are here is getting shorter. We will be finishing the diving part of the project soon. Although no large artifacts were found, we defined the area where many artifacts are concentrated. For coming years, we will be excavating here. I do not think that there will be great discoveries. However, people would hear the story of Ertugrul again, and the good relationship that Turkey and Japan has. Another positive aspect of the project is the working relationship that we established between Turkey, US, and Japan. I think this will be a good step forward for establishing Nautical Archaeology in Japan. I suspect that there are numbers of wrecks in this region because it was the major trade route between west and east Japan. After and perhaps even during this project, we might be able to search for a different shipwreck.

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