Archaeologists diving off Turkey's Mediterranean coast say they may have found the oldest shipwreck ever discovered, a vessel they estimate sank between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago, carrying a cargo of ceramic jars that still hold traces of their original contents.
The expedition, led by Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University, found more than 30 ceramic storage jars, known as amphorae, along with three large stone anchors scattered across a seabed slope near Kekova Island, about 30 meters below the surface. No wood from the roughly 10-meter vessel survived, ruling out radiocarbon dating of the hull itself; instead, researchers dated the wreck by analyzing the shape and decoration of the jars, a method archaeologist Karin Sowada, who is studying the pottery, says places the find firmly in the age of the Egyptian pyramids.
A long way from home
Clay analysis suggests the jars were made in the Jordan Valley, hundreds of kilometers from where the ship went down, and researchers believe they were likely used to transport olive oil or wine. Some jars still hold residue that scientists are now testing to determine whether it is olive oil, wine or tree resin. One theory under consideration is that the ship was bound for Crete or Troy when it sank, part of a Bronze Age Mediterranean trade network that moved goods across considerable distances even without the navigational tools sailors would develop centuries later.
The find would unseat a wreck near the Greek island of Dokos, discovered in 1975 and dated to around 2200 BCE, as the oldest known shipwreck, pushing the record back roughly five centuries. Researchers caution that the dating remains an estimate based on indirect evidence rather than a single definitive method, but say the jars' consistency with known Bronze Age trade routes makes the Mediterranean's new oldest-wreck claim a credible one, pending further analysis of the residue and additional comparison with dated pottery from the same period.
