NEW ORLEANS—Archaeologist recovered many artifacts, although the shipwreck they were working on was 4,000 feet down—the deepest scientific recovery ever attempted in the Gulf of Mexico.

But after pulling up things as varied as a telescope, pottery, French bottles, swords, English jars, hourglasses, and a Scottish cannon, scientists from Texas A&M University are still wondering if the 200-year-old shipwreck might have flown the Jolly Roger rather than the flag of a country.

About 500 items from the ship were being transferred Monday to the Louisiana State Museum and the state Division of Archaeology, which will eventually display them.

Archaeologists will study the pieces, hoping to determine if the ship that carried them was a pirate ship rather than a merchant vessel.