"Drop six light bulbs, four glass vases, and a dozen wine bottles, stir the pieces, and try to put them all back together, as if they were new.

"That is like the problem I faced, starting in 1977 - except I was dealing with between 10,000 and 20,000 smashed glass vessels. But now, after more than two decades of year-round mending, my colleagues and I have assembled by far the largest collection of medieval Islamic glass in the world."

Serçe Limani, Turkey - "Glass Wreck"
Depth: 33 m (110 ft)
Date: c 1025 AD
Hull: 15.6 m (51.2 ft) long
Crew: Bulgarian
Excavation: 1977-1979

"Every wreck ... has its own peculiarities. Soon we were uncovering not only the expected ceramic and metal artifacts, but dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of shards of glass." "... soon our bandaged hands looked like they were excavating razors." (Dr. George F. Bass, from Beneath the Seven Seas: Adventures with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, New York: Thames and Hudson, Inc., © 2005, pp. 106-107)

The Institute of Nautical Archaeology has been committed to exploring, discovering and excavating the world's seafaring history for over thirty years. INA researchers, in association with the Nautical Archaeological Program at Texas A&M University, have traveled the globe uncovering shipwrecks and sunken cities both under the sea and on the land.