听月水榭

Explorers pulled this ancient Byzantine coin from a Black Sea wreck near Sinop, Turkey. Millennia ago, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake. When the last ice age waned some 12,000 years ago, salt water from the Mediterranean breached the Bosporus Valley, transforming the Black Sea into its current state-a toxic, brackish, oxygen-deficient pool, perfect for preserving ancient wrecks.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Deep Black Sea," May 2001, National Geographic magazine)

拜占庭硬币，Sinop，土耳其，2001

Randy Olson摄

勘探者们把这拜占庭硬币从土耳其Sinop附近的一个黑海遗迹中挖掘出来。数千年以前，黑海曾是个淡水湖。当大约12000年前最近的一个冰川期结束后，地中海的咸水穿过博斯普鲁斯海峡，把黑海转变成了现今这个样子--一个有毒的、碱化的、缺氧的内海，这种环境极其适合保存古代遗迹。

（图作而未刊，"深深的黑海"，2001年5月，国家地理杂志）