From Concept to Completion
During the summer of 2007, a new underwater training facility for archaeology called Artifact Park was constructed and completed at Haigh Quarry, Kankakee, Illinois.
This full-size training facility, along with a four-part training program entitled the Underwater Archaeology Diver Program, was designed to educate and certify recreational scuba divers on the proper methods and techniques of underwater survey work.

In the beginning Artifact Park represented a single cargo ship that foundered during a storm 2,400 years ago in the Mediterranean Sea. It measures 10 m (32 feet) in length by 4 m (12 feet) wide. It has been officially dubbed the Akrotiri Wreck and lies in less than 9 m (28 feet) of water.

A vessel of this type was chosen for two reasons. The first is that the wreck contains many of the items that can be used for conducting simple to complicated underwater surveys.
The second reason is that it affords recreational divers a chance to explore a shipwreck site located in another area of the world that they may never get a chance to visit and enjoy.

Cargo and Design
The Akrotiri wreck’s main cargo consists of clay pots (amphorae), a pair of large earthen jars (pithoi), stone anchors, a load of copper ingots (ox-hides), ballast stones, and a galley area with galley artifacts. It also includes a permanent 3 meter by 3 meter square metal survey grid.

The layout for the Akrotiri wreck site is loosely based on the discovery of the Kyrenia Ship that was surveyed and excavated off the northern coast of Cyprus in 1968 under the direction of Michael L. Katzev of the University of Pennsylvania.

No sooner was the Akrotiri wreck site completed that plans were immediately set to expand the Park by adding 5 new smaller sites. Each one of these unique areas is designed to be surveyed, photographed, and drawn for the archaeological record.