Milestones: George F. Bass (1932–2021)

George F. Bass, who established the discipline of nautical archaeology, died on March 2, 2021, at the age of 88. During his first semester in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, his advisor, Rodney Young, offered George the opportunity to direct the excavation of a recently discovered shipwreck found underwater at Cape Gelidonya, off Turkey’s southern coast. George learned to dive at the local YMCA before heading out to the field. The Gelidonya wreck sank c. 1200 B.C., at the seam between the end of the Late Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age. George’s 1960 excavation […]