Off the coast of Turkey, divers have discovered the remains of a ship that may have sunk around 4,500 years ago. It could be the oldest known shipwreck.
The discovery was made near the island of Kekova, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Archaeologist Hakan Öniz identified the site in 2024, thanks in part to information from local sailors. His team found numerous pottery vessels wedged among the rocks, where a boat may once have sunk.
Hakan Öniz
Almost nothing remains of the ship itself. The wood disappeared underwater long ago. But its cargo survived: large ceramic jars with two handles, as well as anchors. The divers had to carefully clear these objects, which were sometimes covered in marine organisms.
The jars made it possible to estimate the age of the shipwreck. Their shape is distinctive: a flat bottom, two handles and, on several examples, a clay ridge around the widest part. Comparable vessels have been found at ancient sites in the Near East.
Archaeologist Karin Sowada of Macquarie University in Australia compared these pottery vessels with other objects that had already been dated. According to the preliminary analyses, the boat may have sunk between 2700 and 2400 BCE. This corresponds to a period when Egypt's great pyramids were under construction.
Divers transport materials discovered during the research.
Hakan Öniz
If this dating is confirmed, the shipwreck would be older than the one at Dokos, in Greece, generally considered the oldest known and dated to around 4,200 years ago. For now, the researchers remain cautious: their estimate still needs to be refined and examined in a complete scientific publication.
What was this ship carrying? Some jars still contain traces of their contents. They may have held oil, wine or plant resins, but only future analyses will make it possible to identify them. Similar vessels may have come from the Jordan Valley, although their place of manufacture has not yet been established with certainty.
This discovery is a reminder that the inhabitants of the Mediterranean were already exchanging goods over long distances more than four millennia ago. Sailors connected ports and transported products that certain regions did not have. The ship's exact route remains unknown.
The researchers are now continuing to study the pottery vessels and their residues. They hope to determine the origin of the cargo and refine the date of the shipwreck. Even without a preserved hull, these objects could tell part of the story of the first maritime exchanges in the Mediterranean.