SAVANNAH, GEORGIA—More than half of the 30,000 artifacts recovered with the wreckage of the ironclad CSS Georgia this summer were returned to the mud of the Savannah River in storage containers. “Anything I considered to be unique, I would say, ‘I want this, I want this.’ I picked through everything. No unique stuff went back in the river,” project manager Jim Jobling of the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University told the Associated Press. The ship, which had been scuttled by its crew in 1864 to keep it from Union troops, was recovered as part of a project to deepen Savannah harbor for cargo ships. In addition to the ship’s armor, several cannons, and pieces of engine, the team recovered buttons, hilts of knives and swords, an intact glass bottle, boots, and an earring. “What we reburied, we made sure it was completely covered and sunk down in the mud. Somebody would have to work pretty hard to get in there,” added Julie Morgan, Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist. For more on nautical archaeology, go to "History's 10 Greatest Shipwrecks."
