DIVING NEWS
World’s oldest intact shipwreck discovered
Picture: Black Sea MAP/EEF Expeditions.
An Anglo-Bulgarian scientific team that has spent three years mapping the Black Sea bed has confirmed that an ancient Greek trading vessel among their finds is the oldest intact shipwreck ever discovered.
The 23m-long vessel, carbon-dated to 400 BC, has remained in an amazing state of preservation at a depth of 2km, thanks to the oxygen-free waters.
23 October 2018
Since 2015 the team of maritime archaeologists, scientists and marine surveyors has been working on the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP), conceived to improve understanding of the impact of prehistoric sea-level changes.
Using specialist remote deepwater camera systems able to supply ultra-high-definition imagery at depth, they have surveyed more than 770 square miles of seabed.
The project has revealed more than 60 shipwrecks, from a 17th-century Cossack raiding fleet through Roman trading vessels complete with amphoras to the complete ship from the Classical period.
Late last year the team discovered the Greek trader, of a design previously seen only on the side of ancient Greek pottery, such as the Siren vase in the British Museum. The vessel was found complete with mast, rudder, benches for the rowers, coils of line in the stern and even discarded fish-bones on the deck.
“A ship, surviving intact, from the Classical world, lying in over 2km of water, is something I would never have believed possible,” commented Professor Jon Adams of the University of Southampton. “This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world.”
Prof Adams led the team with Bulgarian archaeologists Prof Lyudmil Vagalinsky of the National Institute of Archaeology and Dr Kalin Dimitrov of the Centre of Underwater Archaeology.
Black Sea Films has made a two-hour documentary about the project, which premiered at the British Museum in October.
Find out more about the project at blackseamap.com
