Marine archaeology is about studying objects and other traces that people have left by or in water – on the sea bed and in lakes, on beaches and islands. It allows us to learn more about cultures and societies that existed before ours.
Examples of finds include wrecks of ships and boats, harbours, jetties, boat houses and remains of human settlements along coasts and beaches.
The Baltic Sea has an unusually large number of old shipwrecks. Archaeologists believe there may be more than 100 000 of them, and new ones are being discovered all the time.
The wrecks of the Baltic are unique. Nowhere else in the world are there such intact and well preserved wrecks.