Shipwreck believed to be the world’s oldest found off coast of Turkey

Archaeologists working off the coast of southern Turkey have discovered remnants of what could be the oldest known shipwreck, dating to the time when the first pyramids were built in Egypt 4,700 years ago.

Ancient ceramic storage vessels called amphorae were recovered during excavations at the wreck, which was discovered at approximately 100 feet beneath the surface near Kekova Island, CNN reported.

According to a statement from Turkey’s culture ministry, the boat decomposed years ago, but the discoveries can shed new light on how people lived between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

“These are the oldest known remains of a seagoing ship yet found,” Karin Sowada, an archaeologist at Macquarie University in Australia who worked on the project, told People. “While the wooden ship itself has disintegrated, the durable remains of the cargo are still preserved, giving archaeologists a time capsule from the past.”

The amphorae are believed to be used for transporting olive oil or wine, CNN reported. But one amphora features a distinctive set of marks and two holes in its body, suggesting that it could have been used to make cheese or butter.

“The shipwreck is a time capsule at the bottom of the sea,” Hakan Öniz, a professor at Akdeniz University in Turkey who led the Mediterranean Archaeology Association expedition, told the BBC. “We can definitely say our wreck is early Bronze Age. This is 100 percent.”

Archaeologists believe the ship was approximately 33 feet long and served as a trade vessel carrying cargo across the Mediterranean Sea, according to the news organization.

Sowada added that the ship represents a “missing piece” about trading patterns in the eastern Mediterranean.

“It was (traveling) along the southern coast of Turkey with trade goods that we now know belonged to a much wider exchange network,” she told People. For example, Egypt was importing silver from Greece via Byblos in Lebanon at this time. Ships like this were possible intermediaries in that trade.”

Researchers brought the artifacts to a laboratory, where Sowada examined them, the BBC reported. Despite their age, some of the amphorae were still intact and appeared to be coated with residue of the liquids they once transported.

“I looked inside and nearly fainted,” Sowada told the news organization. “I could not believe how much (residue) was visible.

“It could be olive oil, it could be wine, it could be tree resins,” she added. “It’s possible that (the residue) could actually be the result of reuse of the jars. I mean, these jars are huge - they’re not things that you just ship away and then never see again.

“People would have emptied these jars on arrival and potentially used them for many, many, many years.”

Öniz told CNN that the shipwreck was first discovered four years ago.

The amphorae were initially thought to be much more recent, but then Öniz read a publication about some that had been discovered near Egypt’s Giza pyramids, built more than 4,400 years ago.

“These resembled the amphorae in our shipwreck,” Öniz told CNN on Wednesday.

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