Archaeologists may have just found the world's oldest shipwreck

A mysterious shipwreck off Turkey’s coast may be the oldest ever discovered, dating back about 4,500 years to the age of the Egyptian pyramids. Although the wooden vessel has disappeared, its surviving pottery cargo reveals clues about an ancient trading network that may have connected distant Mediterranean civilizations. Researchers believe the ship may have crashed against rocks during a storm while transporting valuable goods such as oil, wine, or tree resin.

Archaeologists may have just found the world’s oldest shipwreck. There’s little left of the ship itself but based on clues from its cargo – including pottery vessels – a research team I was part of has tentatively dated the wreck to around 2700–2400 BCE. Before this discovery, the world’s oldest shipwreck was a wreck off the coast of Dokos, in Greece, thought to have been from about 4,200 years ago.

Much work remains to be done to finesse the conclusions, and a paper outlining the results is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Yet the discovery could transform our understanding of ancient Mediterranean connections during the Early Bronze Age. Here, and perhaps even earlier, lie the foundations of extensive trade routes as we know them today.