A research team has identified what may be the world’s oldest known shipwreck in shallow waters off Kekova, on Turkey’s southern coast. Based on analysis of ceramic vessels and other cargo recovered from the wreck, the team has tentatively dated the vessel to approximately 2700–2400 BCE, making it roughly 4,500 years old. This would surpass the previous record holder, a wreck discovered near Dokos in Greece, which dates to approximately 4,200 years ago.
Associate Professor Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University discovered the wreck in 2024 after receiving information from local seafarers about its location. Over the following months, divers worked to carefully extract pottery and other artifacts from the underwater site. The ship itself has largely deteriorated due to prolonged underwater exposure, but the cargo has provided valuable information for dating and understanding the vessel’s origins and trade connections.
The pottery cargo includes large ceramic storage vessels, or amphorae, featuring distinctive flat bases and two handles, many with a raised horizontal clay band around their widest point. Analysis of these vessels’ shape, manufacturing techniques, and composition has allowed researchers to estimate the wreck’s age. Scientific study of residues found on the pottery suggests the jars may have contained products such as olive oil, wine, or tree resin that were traded across the eastern Mediterranean during the Early Bronze Age.
The discovery holds significant implications for understanding ancient trade networks during the third millennium BCE, a period about which relatively little is known regarding maritime commerce in the eastern Mediterranean. Evidence suggests the ship likely originated in the Central Jordan Valley and traveled along the southern Turkish coast before encountering a storm. The wreck may represent part of an extensive international maritime trading system that connected various Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions during this era.
Formal publication of the findings is pending peer review, and researchers note that the precise dating may be refined as additional analysis continues. The discovery adds to a substantial collection of ancient shipwrecks found in Turkish waters and underscores the region’s importance to maritime archaeological study.
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