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7 Missing Wonders
Many of history's most famous shipwrecks, tombs and relics are still
missing. Jennifer Saranow on the growing high-tech hunt for them.
By JENNIFER SARANOW
November 9, 2007; Page W1

With as many as 1,500 active satellites orbiting the Earth and the
human population approaching seven billion, you'd think that
everything of value on the planet would have been discovered by now.


But some of the world's most famous historical objects, from the
Holy Grail of medieval lore to the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's
plane, remain unaccounted for. Somewhere off the coast of Colombia
lies the San José, a sunken Spanish galleon thought by some to be
carrying more than $1 billion in treasure. Archaeologists have spent
decades searching for the tomb of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. And
since the middle of the 16th century, nobody has seen a mural by
Leonardo da Vinci that many of his contemporaries considered his
greatest masterpiece.

In recent years, a growing army of historians, archaeologists and
wealthy treasure-hunters has been raising huge sums and enlisting
new technology in a bid to find these and other treasures. Maury
Kravitz, a 75-year-old semiretired attorney and commodities trader
from Highland Park, Ill., has spent 15 years and $3 million to $4
million searching north-central Mongolia for the tomb of Genghis
Khan. Roger "Woody" Peard, 53, of Lake Tahoe, Calif., believes
Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10-E, which disappeared over the
South Pacific in 1937, was downed by a midair collision and buried
on a Japanese military base in the Marshall Islands. He is raising
$30,000 to fund an expedition to use ground-penetrating radar to
prove his theory. "Nobody believes me," he says.

Explorers have had some success. Last May, Odyssey Marine
Exploration Inc., an underwater search and recovery firm, announced
it had found a Colonial-era shipwreck it called "Black Swan" and
recovered a trove that includes more than 500,000 silver coins. In
1985, a search team found and filmed the wreckage of the Titanic,
while in 1992, satellite images helped another group locate what
they believe is the lost legendary region of Ubar, which Lawrence of
Arabia called "the Atlantis of the Sands." One searcher says he has
recovered treasure from the famous Flor de la Mar shipwreck off the
coast of Indonesia, while a Texas professor claims to have purchased
a sliver of the True Cross -- the cross used to crucify Jesus -- for
about $1,500 on eBay.


After mysteriously disappearing in 1937, the remains of Amelia
Earhart have eluded explorers who have searched both land and sea. A
number of theories exist on her disappearance. WSJ's Jennifer
Saranow reports.
Traditionally, nonacademic treasure hunts are funded by groups of
investors who seek returns by selling media rights and splitting any
treasure. Odyssey Marine, the most prominent company of its kind,
capitalized on the interest in treasure hunting in 1997 by going
public. The company has a market capitalization of about $300
million and posted revenue of $5.06 million last year. It last had
an annual profit in 2004.

But technology is opening up the field. Using the Global Positioning
System, searchers can better pinpoint where to look. Wireless
communications allow searchers to share and analyze information from
remote spots. Satellite photography can suggest likely ancient sites
and trade routes, while increasingly sensitive and affordable
devices use radar signals, magnetic sensors and electrical pulses to
detect foundations and metal objects. At the same time, deep-diving
devices that use magnetometers and sonar detection have enabled
searchers to see things underwater that weren't visible even five
years ago. Many such techniques are accessible to "pretty much
anybody these days," says W. Fredrick Limp, director of the
University of Arkansas's Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies.


Porcher Taylor III, a University of Richmond professor, has spent
nearly a decade analyzing increasingly detailed satellite images of
an anomaly on Turkey's Mount Ararat that he believes could be Noah's
Ark. In Miami, geographer Ulf Erlingsson recently used high-tech
mapping software to show the similarity between Ireland and Plato's
descriptions of Atlantis (Mr. Erlingsson believes Plato's
descriptions were inspired by an island in the North Sea).

In some cases, wealthy people are commissioning searches. To find
the U.S. submarine their father died in during World War II, three
brothers recently hired two underwater-exploration companies to look
for it (the vessel, the USS Grunion, was identified last August).
For $30,000, individual treasure hunters can buy ground sensors or
hire an underwater search vessel for a day.

In recent years, archaeologists, historians and governments have
voiced concern that many underwater treasure hunters are pillaging
loot with little concern for the historical record. Under
traditional laws governing shipwreck sites in international waters,
finders are keepers and salvagers are entitled to compensation. But
governments are increasingly staking claims -- Odyssey Marine is now
engaged in a legal battle with Spain over the Black Swan. (Laws
governing objects found on land are usually more stringent.)

Here are looks at seven of the most prized lost treasures -- what
they are, where they are thought to be and who is looking for them.

Write to Jennifer Saranow at [email protected]