In 1791, the British naval vessel HMS Pandora sank on the Great Barrier Reef while pursuing the mutineers from the HMS Bounty. The mutineers, led by Christian Fletcher, staged an uprising against their captain Lieutenant William Bligh in 1789, forcing Bligh and his supporters out to sea in a launch.

This infamous act sent the fugitives fleeing across the Pacific, and set the stage for Pandora’s ill-fated pursuit.

When archaeologists first descended onto Pandora’s wreck in 1979, they weren’t just uncovering a ship. They were opening a time capsule of empire, exploration and human endurance. Thousands of artefacts were slowly excavated from the frigate over the next 20 years.

For decades, these recovered artefacts remained a sleeping archive of untapped scientific, cultural and environmental knowledge. But researchers are starting to study the collection again using fresh eyes and new tools.

The story of Pandora reveals a deeper truth about archaeology: discovery doesn’t end with the dive, it lingers in troves still sitting on museum shelves, waiting to be studied.

The British Navy dispatched HMS Pandora in 1790 to hunt down the Bounty mutineers. A year later, the ship struck the Great Barrier Reef and sank, taking 35 men with it.

When the wreck was rediscovered in 1977, it became the focus of one of Australia’s most ambitious archaeological projects. Over nine field seasons........

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