Oldest Known Shipwreck Said Found Off Turkish Coast, Cargo Intact After 4,500 Years

KEKOVA ISLAND, TURKEY — Marine archaeologists have located what they describe as the world's oldest known shipwreck on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, near Kekova Island, according to a report published by Ancient Pages.

The report states that the wreck dates to between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago, in the Early Bronze Age. The international expedition, led by the Mediterranean Archaeology Association, found the debris field at a depth of roughly 100 feet. Professor Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University, who led the team, is quoted as saying the wooden hull has long since dissolved, while the durable cargo survived in a pocket of sediment.

Teams have so far catalogued and retrieved about 30 ceramic storage jars, known as amphorae, and three large stone anchors, the report says. Early petrographic and stylistic analyses suggest the jars came from the Levantine coast or the Jordan Valley. Dr. Karin Sowada of Macquarie University is described as astonished by organic remnants inside the jars, and is said to expect that forthcoming tests will reveal their contents.

The find would displace the 4,200-year-old Dokos wreck off Greece as the earliest known. The article notes that the vessel sailed roughly when laborers in Egypt were building the Great Pyramid, and says the discovery suggests organized maritime trade networks arose centuries earlier than previously recognized.

The site remains under active excavation and strict conservation status. The artifacts are to be housed in Antalya's new Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology Museum once it opens. For preserved timber, the article adds, the benchmark remains a 2,400-year-old Greek merchant ship lying intact in the Black Sea in Bulgarian waters.