They claim to have discovered the oldest shipwreck in the world

BarcelonaA team of archaeologists led by Akdeniz University in Turkey claims to have made a historic discovery in the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean: the remains of a ship that sank between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago off the coast of Kekova, in the Antalya region. The vessel, which according to the team's calculations dates back to the Early Bronze Age – the same period in which the Great Pyramid of Giza was being built in Egypt –, would thus become the oldest known shipwreck to date.

Although the seawater and the passage of time would have completely destroyed the wooden hull, which is estimated to have been about ten meters long, the researchers state that the seabed has preserved a true "time capsule". Divers have found more than 30 intact ceramic vessels and three large stone anchors at a depth of 30 meters.

A window into trade from five millennia ago

The absence of organic wood remains has prevented the use of the carbon-14 technique to date the ship. However, according to the researchers, the typology of the containers—flat-based, with two handles and a very characteristic central protrusion—allows their age to be determined with great precision. The pieces, they indicate, coincide exactly with the pottery used in Egypt and the Near East during the third millennium before our era.

"We can say with 100% certainty that the ship belongs to the Early Bronze Age," asserts Professor Hakan Öniz, director of the excavations. "We are the first people to touch these objects in 5,000 years." The most surprising detail of the site, according to the archaeological team, is hidden inside the containers. Several recipients still preserve dense, shiny substances that, according to initial working hypotheses, were transported nearly fifty centuries ago. Research teams from Macquarie University in Australia are now analyzing whether they are olive oil, wine, or natural resins.

Experts clarify, however, that these large storage amphorae were valuable and reusable objects that could travel from port to port for decades before ending up on the seabed. A final interrupted voyage that, according to archaeologists, could offer new clues about the first trade routes that connected the civilizations of the Mediterranean.

Until now, the discovery of a ship that sank about 4,200 years ago off the coast of Dokos, an island in southern Greece, topped the list of the world's oldest shipwrecks. Now, after the investigation by this team of archaeologists, the finding of the remains of the ship that sank off the coast of Kekova would become the oldest shipwreck. Turkey's Minister of Culture, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, has explained that the pottery pieces recovered from the ship will be exhibited at the new Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology Museum in Antalya, which is expected to open its doors in the coming months.