Draft:Dragomir Garbov

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Dragomir Garbov

Dragomir Garbov (Bulgarian: Драгомир Гърбов, born September 27, 1983) is a Bulgarian Australian underwater archaeologist and maritime historian, specializing in the Black Sea region. He is a Research Associate of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the Centre for Underwater Archaeology, in Sozopol, Bulgaria and Adjunct Professor in the New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria. His work spans underwater archaeological excavations, shipwreck studies, maritime iconography, and the history and archaeology of shipbuilding and seafaring on the Black Sea and beyond. A large part of his work is devoted to the nearly intact wooden shipwrecks of the Black Sea .

Early life and education

Dragomir Garbov was born on September 27, 1983, in Burgas, Bulgaria. He graduated the "Goethe" German language high school in his hometown and went on to study archaeology in the University of Bonn, Germany. He graduated with bachelor's and a master's degree in history and archaeology in the New Bulgarian University, Sofia, where he obtained his doctorate in 2016.

He specialized in Classical Archaeology in the Americal School of Classical Studies at Athens and underwater archaeology in the International Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar, Croatia. He holds a number of recreational and commercial diving licenses.

Career

In 2013, Dragomir Garbov began working as a maritime archaeologist at the Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Sozopol, a cultural institute under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria.

In 2015, Garbov became the Excavation Director of the Saint Nicholas Bay Shipwreck near the township of Chernomorets, completing the second-ever full underwater archaeological excavation of an historic shipwreck in the Western Black Sea. The wreck was later identified in an archival study as the remains of the Italian barquentine Alleanza, wrecked near Burgas in November 1875.

In September 2015, Garbov joined the team of the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP), the world's largest and most ambitious archaeological expedition ever undertaken at sea. The expedition was lead by Prof. Jonathan Adams of Southampton University, Dr Kroum Batchvarov from the University of Connecticut and Prof. Johan Rönnby of Södertörn University, Stockholm. Garbov acted as a deputy permit holder. The project is credited with discovering the nearly intact wrecks of 65 wooden sailing ships, including the world's oldest nearly intact shipwreck - an Ancient Greek ship, dated to the 5-4th c. BC. Garbov is a key figure in the 2018 documentary Lost Worlds Deeper into the Black Sea and works on the research and publication of six 18th and 19th century shipwrecks of the 'western tradition' discovered by Black Sea MAP.

Since 2022, together with co-principal investigator Kroum Batchvarov, Garbov became the permit holder and excavation director of the Urdoviza Shipwreck Excavation Project, near the township of Kiten, Bulgaria. This is an ongoing joint research project between the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the Bulgarian Centre for Underwater archaeology, focusing on a nearly intact Ottoman wreck buries in seabed sediments up to the main deck. Urdoviza is one of the best-preserved wooden shipwrecks to have ever been excavated underwater.

Apart from his archaeological investigations he has undertaken pioneering archival studies identifying numerous historic shipwrecks along the western coast of the Black Sea.

Contributions and recognition

Dragomir Garbov has been internationally recognized as a key figure in Black Sea archaeology. He has undertaken a series of key investigations dedicated to the study of Black Sea shipwrecks.

Garbov is a member of the International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage of ICOMOS since 2018.

In 2022, he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America for high attainments in the field of archaeology.

In 2024, he was elected a Research Associate of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.

Select works

GARBOV, D. (2025) Notes on the Archaeology and Contextualization of a Nearly Intact Schooner Koff in the Western Black Sea, Journal of Maritime Archaeology, https://doi.org/10.1007/S11457-025-09457-3

GARBOV, D. (2024) A nearly intact bombarde in the western Black Sea: initial observations, Sailing through History. Reading the Past – Imagining the Future: Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology ISBSA 16, 171-180, https://doi.org/10.15291/9789533315201.21

GARBOV, D. (2024) The Veiled Wreck: A 19th Century Wooden Sailing Merchantman on the Southern Bulgarian Continental Shelf Archaeologia Bulgarica, Vol. 28.1, pp. 85-96.

GARBOV, D.; PRAHOV, N.; HRISTOV, I.; BATCHVAROV, K. (2023) The carronades from Ezerets: archaeology and conservation of an underwater chance-find from northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, Archaeologia Bulgarica, Vol. 27.3, pp. 87-104.

GARBOV, D. (2022) Not the Luckiest of Ships: Identification and History of the Saint Nicholas Bay Shipwreck, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 51.1, pp. 145-172.

GARBOV, D. (2021) The Saint Nicholas Bay Shipwreck, Chernomorets, Bulgaria: Rescue excavations of a 19^th-century sailing merchantman, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 50.1, pp. 165-188.