World's oldest intact shipwreck discovered in Black Sea
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the world’s oldest intact shipwreck at the bottom of the Black Sea where it appears to have lain undisturbed for more than 2,400 years.
The 23-metre (75ft) vessel, thought to be ancient Greek, was discovered with its mast, rudders and rowing benches all present and correct just over a mile below the surface. A lack of oxygen at that depth preserved it, the researchers said.
“A ship surviving intact from the classical world, lying in over 2km of water, is something I would never have believed possible,” said Professor Jon Adams, the principal investigator with the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP), the team that made the find. “This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world.”
The ship is believed to have been a trading vessel of a type that researchers say has only previously been seen “on the side of ancient Greek pottery such as the ‘Siren Vase’ in the British Museum”.
The ‘Siren Vase’ in the British Museum: the shipwreck is believed to be a vessel similar to that shown bearing Odysseus. Photograph: Werner Forman/UIG via Getty Images
That work, which dates from about the same period, depicts a similar vessel bearing Odysseus past the sirens, with the Homeric hero lashed to the mast to resist their songs.
© Werner Forman/UIG via Getty Images The ‘Siren Vase’ in the British Museum: the shipwreck is believed to be a vessel similar to that shown bearing Odysseus.
The team reportedly said they intended to leave the vessel where it was found, but added that a small piece had been carbon dated by the University of Southampton and claimed the results “confirmed [it] as the oldest intact shipwreck known to mankind”. The team said the data would be published at the Black Sea MAP conference at the Wellcome Collection in London later this week.
It was among more than 60 shipwrecks found by the international team of maritime archaeologists, scientists and marine surveyors, which has been on a three-year mission to explore the depths of the Black Sea to gain a greater understanding of the impact of prehistoric sea-level changes.
They said the finds varied in age from a “17th-century Cossack raiding fleet, through Roman trading vessels, complete with amphorae, to a complete ship from the classical period”.
The documentary team made a two-hour film that is due to be shown at the British Museum on Tuesday.
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I'm always fascinated by these finds. The tech keeps getting better and better. Be interesting to see what we are finding 20 years from now.
yepp cool stuff alright.
nice find
They had a good documentary on TLC one of those ships, it wasn't this one that ship's mast stood straight up. The ROV they used were remarkable.
Wow now that IS cool ..... and very deep.
I've been to over 300' and that is technical enough, can't imagine over 6000 feet.
Now this is totally awesome!
I have been following this work for a few years now. Fascinating.
The archeological and anthropological learning opportunities in the depths of the Black Sea are mind bending.
The anaerobic lower level is a result of of the rising global sea levels during periods of rapid glacial melt which resulted in the Mediterranean flooding into the Black Sea thousands of years ago.
"Fresh" water is at the bottom and salt water in the upper layer. "Nothing" lives in the anaerobic "fresh" water level and this is why the ships and other archeological finds discovered there are in such great condition.
They have been able to trace some of the origin points of the goods and realize trade routes were more vast than the mainstream archeologist had previously declared.
Fascinating to learn about the many ancient histories.
CORRECTION: I crossed my salinity levels.
The bottom layer has a very high salt content.
The top layer has about half the salt content of oceans as it is continually fed by fresh water rivers and the connection to the Mediterranean relatively small.
Definitely want to catch that documentary when it comes on PTV.
If you're going to post pictures on one of my seeds, some information needs to go with it.
Use your words.
I didn't post it becuase I didn't like the way the story flowed-it was, to me, poorly written.
Technically, as a Mod, I was only worried about the copyright issue, but I could not insert the picture where it belonged in the article where the credit is clearly given for the photograph.
I assumed you had the same technical issue with the picture.
The photo of the vase seems to me to be critical to enhancing the understanding of what the ship looked like in reality
as opposed to the underwater shot of the wreck.
Good article.
So nice to read and enjoy a subject on NT that does not involve political parties and ideologies bashing each other. I love history!
I love these finds, the Dead Sea has such an opportunity to find such things because of its make up. I wonder if anyone survived the sinking.
They may very well have survived the sinking Galen, but, since the article doesn't mention damage, she probably went down in a storm (high winds and high waves). The survivors would have been swimming in that kind of mess; unless picked up by another ship they wouldn't last long. I'm surprised that there was no damage, if only from colliding with the bottom. Sounds like it'll be a very interesting program. I wonder if they've found anything more recent (say 19th or 20th Centuries). Since there's no oxygen, steel ships wouldn't rust and even the hemp in the rigging wouldn't decay.
The only problem with finding them, is that they can't be brought up without the ships being damaged by hitting the oxygen when they come to the surface.
I love this stuff too. There has been much discovered around that entire area of the Aegean, Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and into the Black Sea.
Remember we were "taught" the was no such thing as "Troy"? Now they are talking about 7 or 9 layers of Troy.
Early archeologists were a mess. They were grim reapers of our history. A fella named Heinrich Schliemann destroyed an untold amount of history in his blind and thoughtless search for the Treasure of Priam. Priam was the Homeric era king of Troy.
Well ol' Heinrich there, found a treasure. Unfortunately, not the one he was looking for. What he found was from a period many consider 1,000 years EARLIER. That puts the treasure at about 4,300 yrs old. You know,"stupid" people who hadn't reached the Bronze Age Yet. Some may claim pre Copper Age but I am pretty sure Otzi who is from somewhere between 5,000 and 5,500 yrs ago had a beautifully shaped copper "axe". IIRC it was actually a maul and looked pretty much like modern mauls. So the Copper Age goes back pretty far.
Check out this Trojan jewelry from 4,300 yrs ago:
and on and on. This last one looks like copper.
The bottom of the Black Sea very well could be littered with ancient ship carrying cargo like this.
Here is a link for Otzi. Pretty good info unfortunately they talk about the copper "axe" (maul) but don't show the picture.
Careful there is a 5,000 yr old plus dead guy shown. RIP Otzi.
Okay, more about the Black Sea. Julia and I want to take a cruise across the Black Sea. She wants a modern cruise ship. I want it this way:
If you have the curiosity and time and can appreciate the phraseology use the google Russian to English translator. Everybody in that part of the country speaks Russian even though it is frowned. I think it is illegal. ?
Anyhow this couple is hilarious. They come from a city a few hours up river from where Julia is from.
They go through a lock to get to the river Dnieper (not a fan of that lock), travel down river and into and across the Black sea to points in Turkey.
A ton of history, geography and nature is shown. Of course some nice meals and seeing the guy with a beer in his hand isn't a rarity.
If you have a chance to take the tour, I hope you enjoy it.
Oops, apologies Gary. I went a little overboard there. Hope you don't mind.
I remember hearing about Otzi, at first the authority's thought it was a current murder scene then they learned that he was pretty doggone old and, called in the archeologists to look at him.
I believe I found Otzi's axe, it is a picture taken at the site,
Great, thanks. Thank rings some bells.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Yep, Otzi was pretty doggone old.
I don't think we will ever discover everything, but we are much further beyond where we were even 20 yrs ago.
You're fine, your post and the info and links are fascinating.
You know, as climate change goes farther and, farther it seems more and, more things are being discovered.
This is true from the aspect of the loss of glacial ice. On other other hand there is a lot hidden under the seas now. Expeditions like this shows there are ways to discover our past that has been under the seas for milena. There is a lot more to be discovered than ships down there.
No doubt, I've heard old legends of cities around the Black Sea and, there is no evidence of them on the exposed land, maybe, just maybe they are now in the Black Sea.
A decade or more ago I read about such discoveries and exploration work. Can't find any of those old articles. However, I found couple National Geographic photos of what shows evidence underwater of pre-flooded Black Sea habitation.
I am supposed to show credits, but it renders the images instead.
The two photos show what appear to be drilled hole in the shaped objects at the top and a notched log and stacked stones in the bottom photo.
The images were linked from this page:
I think there is more to the Black Sea area than we can imagine, it will indeed require more study there. In fact, I would say, start there and, work our way back down into the Middle East for archeological finds.
Probably as good a path as any to take especially considering Gobekli Tepe in South Eastern Turkey is right along that path. Some of the most recent findings suggest parts of the complex go back to 14K years ago.
A portion of beautiful obsidian bracelet was found there that has been dated back to 7,500 BC.
This is a digital reconstruction:
Not stupid people look at the accuracy shown in the first image.