A trade ship lost in the Early Bronze Age

Archaeologists say they have found the world's oldest known shipwreck off the coast of Kekova Island in Antalya province, southern Turkey. The wreck is dated to between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago, in the Early Bronze Age, roughly when the Great Pyramid was being built in Egypt. The vessel was a trade ship about 10 metres long that carried cargo across the Mediterranean. The expedition was led by Professor Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University in Turkey, working for the Mediterranean Archaeology Association. The ship's wooden hull did not survive, so the storage pots it carried are what remain. Öniz described the wreck in these words:

The shipwreck is a time capsule at the bottom of the sea.

Dating the wreck from its jars

With no wood left, the team could not use radiocarbon dating, a method that measures carbon in organic material. Instead, archaeologists examined the shape of the amphorae, the storage jars, which have two handles, a ridge at the middle of the body and a flat base. Similar jars have turned up in Egypt and the Middle East, where they are known to be 4,400 to 4,700 years old. Öniz said the decoration techniques allow the team to be certain of the period, and he put his confidence at 100%.

What lies on the seabed

The artefacts are scattered across an underwater slope about 30 metres below the surface, near the shore of Kekova Island. Divers recovered three large stone anchors and more than 30 ceramic storage jars. Some of the amphorae came up intact and were brought to the surface, where they are now being carefully conserved after thousands of years underwater. Ships of that period carried spare anchors on long voyages, which may explain the three anchors found here. The wreck also displaces a previous record holder, found off Dokos, an island in southern Greece.

Residue inside the jars

Some of the recovered amphorae still held a viscous, glossy residue, which surprised Dr Karin Sowada, an archaeologist at Macquarie University in Australia, who examined them after recovery. She described her reaction in these words:

I looked inside and nearly fainted. I could not believe how much [residue] was visible.

Sowada said the contents could be olive oil, wine or tree resin. She also suggested the residue might come from jars that were reused after their first contents were emptied. The team is now working to establish precisely what the jars carried.