Turkish archaeologists have found a shipwreck off Kekova Island in Antalya province dated to between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago, in the Early Bronze Age, when the Great Pyramid was being built. It may be the oldest shipwreck ever discovered, the BBC reports.
The wood of the roughly 10-metre vessel has not survived, but 30 metres down lay three large stone anchors and more than 30 amphorae. The age was determined from the shape of the jars, which match others found in Egypt and the Middle East. “The shipwreck is a time capsule at the bottom of the sea,” said Professor Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University, who led the expedition.
Some of the amphorae, now recovered and being conserved, still contain a viscous, glossy residue, which astonished archaeologist Karin Sowada of Macquarie University in Australia. Analysing it could reveal what was being shipped across the Mediterranean more than four thousand years ago.
