Archaeologists believe a shipwreck discovered in shallow waters off Kekova, near Antalya, Türkiye, may be the oldest known shipwreck in the world. Based on its ceramic cargo, the wreck has been tentatively dated to between 2700 and 2400 BC, or roughly 4,500 years ago. The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and further work is needed, but the discovery could reshape understanding of maritime trade and connections across the Early Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean.
Before this discovery, the oldest known shipwreck was found off Dokos, Greece, and was dated to approximately 4,200 years ago.
Searching for clues beneath the water
Associate Professor Hakan Ornis of Antalya’s Akdeniz University has spent decades excavating ancient shipwrecks along Türkiye’s southern coastline.
Following information from local sailors, Ornis discovered the wreck in shallow water off Kekova, west of Antalya, in 2024. Earlier this year, he asked an archaeologist specializing in desert ruins to help date the ceramic vessels recovered from the site.
The underwater excavation required new skills, including flooded excavation methods and painstaking preservation techniques. The ship itself has been exposed to the elements underwater for so long that no visible wooden structure remains. Researchers currently date the vessel and its cargo to between 2700 and 2400 BC, although the exact year remains uncertain and the date could eventually be revised in either direction.
A time capsule of ancient trade
The discovery could transform the understanding of trade networks that connected the eastern Mediterranean roughly 4,500 years ago. The wreck represents a potential “missing piece” in the history of regional exchange during an era that included the Pyramid Age of Giza and the rule of powerful Egyptian pharaohs.
What remains on the seabed is effectively a time capsule of ancient commerce. The vessel appears to have been sailing along the coast of southern Türkiye, although its precise route is not known.
The wreck lies between two islands. Its location suggests that the ship may have sought shelter in relatively calm, leeward waters during a storm before striking the rocks. The sailors—possibly people from the Levantine coast—may have been unable to avoid the disaster.
The ship’s wooden hull has disappeared, but parts of its valuable cargo remained embedded in rocky slopes along the Kekova coast. Divers have spent the past four months removing pottery from barnacles clinging to the underwater rock formations.
What the pottery reveals
Ceramics can survive for thousands of years. Although vessels break apart, their fragments preserve information about where they were made, how they were produced and, sometimes, what they carried.
The cargo included large ceramic storage vessels, or amphorae, that once held products from different parts of the eastern Mediterranean. Some were large, oval, flat-sided jars with two handles and a raised horizontal clay “belt” around their widest point.
The vessels’ shapes and manufacturing techniques can help researchers estimate their age. They may also reveal the pottery’s likely place of origin and the goods that moved through the region. Those clues provide the basis for dating not only the ceramics but potentially the ship itself.
Some of the belted vessels—or the clay used to make them—may have originated in the central Jordan Valley, according to the researchers’ current assessment. The ship may also have collected pottery from several ports during its voyage.
Evidence of a wider maritime network
Trade and exchange in the eastern Mediterranean during the third millennium BC, from 3000 to 2000 BC, are less well understood than activity in later periods. Evidence for long-distance voyages comes from Egyptian texts, pottery and raw materials found in ancient tombs.
At around the time the Kekova ship was wrecked, ancient Egypt was trading in the eastern Mediterranean through the port of Byblos in present-day Lebanon. The Egyptian state imported commodities that were scarce locally, including cedar, tin and lead, oil, tree resin, lapis lazuli and silver.
A recent study found that Egypt acquired silver around 2600 BC. Its analysis indicated that the silver came from the Lavrion mine east of present-day Athens.
Egyptian ships probably did not make the entire voyage themselves, but vessels such as the Kekova ship may have travelled along parts of the same route as part of an expanding international maritime network.
Residue is still visible inside some of the pottery. Scientific analysis is pending, so its contents cannot yet be identified. The residue could represent products mentioned in Egyptian texts, such as olive oil, wine or tree resin.
More secrets beneath the southern Turkish coast
The southern coast of Türkiye is dotted with ancient shipwrecks. Maritime archaeology is a relatively recent field, but some of the world’s best-known wrecks have been discovered in the region. The Kekova site may provide important evidence about early seafaring, while other wrecks could reveal more about the trade routes and cultural connections of the Early Bronze Age.
The research underlying this article was led by Associate Professor Hakan Ornis, head of the Mediterranean Underwater Cultural Heritage Research Department and the Cultural Heritage Restoration and Conservation Department in the Faculty of Arts at Akdeniz University in Antalya, Türkiye.
Source: www.sciencedaily.com
