Uluburun shipwreck, at 3,300 years, one of the oldest wrecks ever discovered, still contained edibles such as almonds, figs, grapes & olives

The Uluburun Shipwreck is a Late Bronze Age shipwreck discovered at the east shore of Uluburun in the late 14th century BC.

The shipwreck was found in the summer of 1982 as a result of Mehmet akir’s sketch of “the metal biscuits with ears,” which were identified as oxhide ingots.

The survey crew of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology frequently contacted Turkish sponge divers on how to locate historic wrecks when diving for sponges.

Ouz Alpözen, Director of the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, was prompted by akir’s discoveries to dispatch an inspection team of Museum and INA archaeologists to identify the wreck site.

The inspection crew discovered many metal ingots approximately 50 meters from the coast of Uluburun.

Based on the data presented by the ship’s cargo, it may be presumed that the ship set sail from a Cypriot or Syro-Palestinian port.

The Uluburun ship was clearly traveling west of Cyprus, but her eventual destination can only be determined by the dispersion of artefacts matching the categories carried on board.

It’s been suggested that the ship’s destination was a port in the Aegean Sea.

Rhodes, an important Aegean redistribution center at the time, has been suggested as a possible destination.

According to the shipwreck’s archaeologists, the ship’s likely ultimate destination was one of the Mycenaean mansions on mainland Greece.

To get an absolute date for the ship, Cornell University’s Peter Kuniholm was tasked with dendrochronological dating.

The results date the wood to 1305 BC, but because no bark remains, a precise date cannot be determined, and it is likely that the ship sank after that date.

Based on ceramic evidence, it appears that the Uluburun drowned around the end of the Amarna period, but not before Nefertiti’s time, according to the unique gold scarab inscribed with her name discovered aboard the ship.

For the time being, it is assumed that the ship sank towards the end of the 14th century BC.

The artefacts aboard the ship have origins ranging from northern Europe to Africa, as far west as Sicily and Sardinia and as far east as Mesopotamia.

They appear to be the result of nine or 10 different cultures. This provenance suggests that the Late Bronze Age Aegean was a medium of international trade in the Near East, maybe based on royal gift-giving.

According to several academics’ reconstructions, the Uluburun shipwreck depicts a vibrant trade marine network in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean. In this case, a massive consignment of luxury things, royal presents, and raw resources. According to the results, Mycenaean authorities may have been on board with the presents as well.

The debris and cargo distribution indicate that the ship was between 15 and 16 meters long. It was built in the shell-first manner, with mortise-and-tenon joints reminiscent of Graeco-Roman ships from subsequent eras.

Despite a thorough study of Uluburun’s hull, there is no indication of framing. The keel looks to be crude, probably more of a keel-plank than a true keel.

The ship was made of Lebanese cedar planks and oak tenons. The Lebanese cedar is native to Lebanon’s highlands, southern Turkey, and central Cyprus. The ship was laden with 24 stone anchors.

The stone is of a kind that is almost entirely unknown in the Aegean, although it is frequently used in the temples of Syria-Palestine and Cyprus. Brushwood and sticks were used as dunnage to shield the planks of the ship from the metal ingots and other heavy cargo.

Cargo

The cargo of the Uluburun ship was predominantly raw goods that were trade items, which were previously only known from ancient literature or Egyptian tomb paintings.

The cargo corresponds to several of the royal presents stated in the Amarna letters discovered in El-Amarna, Egypt.

The Institute of Nautical Archaeology began excavations in July 1984 under the guidance of its founder, George F. Bass, and was later handed over to Cemal Pulak, INA’s Vice President for Turkey, who led the excavation from 1985 to 1994.

The wreck was between 44 and 52 meters deep on a rocky slope filled with sand pockets. Half of the staff members who assisted in the dig resided in a tent dug into the southeastern face of the promontory, where the ship most likely struck, while the other half lived onboard the Virazon, INA’s research vessel at the time.

An underwater telephone booth and air-lifts were used at the excavation site. The location was mapped using triangulation. Excavators were guided by meter tapes and metal squares.

Since the excavation’s completion in September 1994, all efforts have been focused on full-time conservation, investigation, and sample for analysis in Turkey’s Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology’s conservation laboratory.