When Indiana Jones leaves the classroom and puts on his brown hat, moviegoers know the action adventure is about to begin. The professor picks up a whip, puts a map with an "X marks the spot" in his shirt pocket, and finds long-lost artifacts in some very bizarre places.

Move over, Indy. Make room for the real deal. John R. Bratten, Ph.D., is a nautical archaeologist/conservator and an associate professor with the Archaeology Institute at University of West Florida in Pensacola. He directs the Maritime Studies program at UWF's Archaeology Institute.

Bratten and his students are finding long-lost artifacts in a surprising place: underwater. Getting out of the classroom, they don't put on brown hats. Instead these adventurers don wetsuits, strap on oxygen tanks and dive into Pensacola Bay.

What they are bringing up from early Spanish exploration shipwrecks – ballast, anchors, pottery pieces and encrusted armor – is centuries-old history come alive again. Read on to learn about the history of Florida’s underwater archaeology in Pensacola, and find out where you can go to view the encrusted past uncovered and revealed.

Divers went down. Target 2 turned out to be a ship that carried bricks and probably dates from just before the Civil War. Target 17 turned out to be the mother lode, the X on the treasure map, the find of the century.
Bringing Up History

In 1992, a survey team for the state of Florida was looking for shipwrecks using a magnetometer. A chart lighted up, leading to the discovery of a large lead ballast pile and a nearby anchor.

At the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum, you can see a photo of the anchor being raised from its watery grave where it had been entombed for 400 years.

The state hired Bratten in 1993 to help conserve all the artifacts being found underwater. From 1992 to 1998, the state found 3,600 artifacts. Hired by UWF in 1997, Bratten was the first underwater archaeologist to join the Archaeology Institute.

In 2006, while dragging a magnetometer in a grid pattern across the Pensacola Bay and using the project to train UWF students, the machine picked up the presence of metal objects. Scientists call these "targets."

Divers went down. Target 2 turned out to be a ship that carried bricks and probably dates from just before the Civil War. Target 17 turned out to be the mother lode, the X on the treasure map, the find of the century.

Target 17 had Spanish ceramics, strips of lead hull sheathing and lots of stone ballast covering a preserved wooden hull.

More excavation in 2007 proved the ship was part of the de Luna expedition in 1559, the very first colonial attempt by Spain to settle in Florida.

In a word – this find was huge. It was found quite close to another de Luna ship discovered in 1992. The two shipwrecks, almost side by side, are the oldest shipwrecks discovered in Florida.


History, Lunch and Shopping 

You can see many artifacts from their dives, and underwater explorations by the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, at the de Luna Expedition Exhibit at T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum in historic downtown Pensacola. The Wentworthand nearby Historic Pensacola Village are owned and operated by West Florida Historic Preservation Inc, part of the University of West Florida.

After seeing the dive exhibit and other collections at the Wentworth, walk one block to Historic Pensacola Village. Sign up for a guided tour through historic houses. See re-enactors living life as it was in the 18th century and walk inside the elegant Christ Church, an Episcopal church built in 1832.

Follow this history tour with a walk around Seville Square. Check out the lunch possibilities. Several historic houses facing the square have restaurants with tables on the front porch and lawn. I enjoyed the American cuisine at Dharma Blue, (850) 433-1275. Sitting outside on the porch, my lunch companions that day were deep purple pansies in full bloom in a window box.

For an after-lunch stroll, head back to the square, walk two blocks and you go from the Seville Historic District to the Palafox Historic District. They merge with each other within blocks. Walk the wide brick sidewalks past shops, galleries and restaurants. You are sure to find dessert.

Want more artifacts? The past is also on display at the museum area of the Archaeology Institute on the UWF campus.

One display shows a breastplate like those worn by Spanish soldiers, carefully restored to its luminous glory. Next to it is a photograph of a deeply encrusted object. This is a breastplate. A reproduced breastplate sit sits next to the encrusted one. Nearby is a small rim of a bowl found underwater. A reproduced bowl and a painting from the Middle Ages showing the same bowl brings the artifact alive. Seeing the past is exciting. But the underwater adventure is not finished. Great finds keep happening and Bratten and his students are on the cutting edge.

Pensacola celebrates its 450th birthday in 2009. Yes, they started counting from the time the de Luna expedition set foot on shore. More Spaniards returned in the 1600s and built a fort. Over time, Pensacola changed hands from Spain to France, England and the United States.

The celebration starts early and will be 450 days long, from a kick off party on May 23, 2008 to August 15, 2009.

By that time, the underwater archaeology teams hope to have a web cam, website and public lectures. The videos and web cam would be available at the Pensacola Bay Area Convention & Visitors Information Center, a large green building that looks out over the point and the bay.

And the biggest treasure of them all? Well that has to be the building of a full-fledged Archaeology Museum in Pensacola. This is the stuff of dreams for Bratten, the Archaeology Institute and interested partners. It won't be done in time for the celebration in 2009 but someday, backers hope, the doors will open . . .