Archaeologists have discovered a sunken ship off the coast of Turkey that is up to 4,700 years old
Kyiv • UNN
Near the island of Kekova, they discovered the remains of an Early Bronze Age vessel with amphorae and anchors. It may be the oldest sunken ship.
Off the coast of Turkey, archaeologists have discovered a sunken Early Bronze Age ship estimated to be 4,400–4,700 years old. The vessel may have transported trade cargo across the Mediterranean Sea. The Independent reports, as cited by UNN.
Details
Although the ship’s wooden structure has not survived, archaeologists dated the storage pottery vessels and stone anchors found near Kekova Island to 2600–2400 BC. This could make the find the oldest known shipwreck in the world.
Previously, this status belonged to a ship that sank near Dokos Island in the Aegean Sea. It is dated to approximately 2200 BC.
Some of the amphorae found—large ceramic vessels with two handles—are similar to Early Bronze Age pottery from the Levant, which includes the territories of modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Palestine.
The ceramic vessels were found scattered across the seabed at a depth of about 30 meters. The seabed is partly covered with sand and partly consists of rock.
One of the vessels resembled containers used during the Bronze Age to transport agricultural products, particularly wine and olive oil.
Near the sunken vessel, researchers also found two stone anchors with three holes and one anchor with a single hole. Similar artifacts have been discovered at other Bronze Age archaeological sites.
According to the researchers, anchors with three holes have parallels in Minoan, Cypriot, Anatolian, and Levantine archaeological contexts from the Bronze Age. The single-hole anchor is similar to those found off the coasts of Anatolia and the Levant.
It is not yet known whether these anchors belonged specifically to the discovered ship. At the same time, they may help provide a better understanding of the anchoring technologies used in the region during the Bronze Age.