Researchers from Akdeniz University in Turkey found in 2023 the wreck of a ship carrying tableware that sank more than 2000 years ago off the village of Adrasan, on the country’s southern coast. The vessel lies at a depth of between about 42 and 55 metres.
The excavation, led by underwater archaeologist Hakan Öniz, began in 2025 and continues with the help of underwater robots. The team has already classified thousands of objects into 122 types, including plates, bowls, trays and amphorae. Clay packed between the pieces in the shipping crates helped preserve many of them.
Coins from the city of Antioch, dating from the 1st century BC and found among the wreckage, help date the sinking. Most of the plates and bowls were probably made in the port of Rhosus, today’s Arsuz, famous for pottery that Cicero himself praised in a letter, while the amphorae probably came from the Aegean islands.
According to the researchers, the ship was part of a trade network linking Antioch, Greece and the Italian Peninsula, and probably sank on its way to Rome after striking shoals during a storm. The Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, celebrated the discovery on social media.
