World’s oldest shipwreck found off Turkey, archaeologists say
With no wood left for radiocarbon testing, the Early Bronze Age date rests on the shape and decoration of the pottery.
The world’s oldest shipwreck has been found off the coast of Turkey, near Kekova Island in Antalya province, archaeologists have said.
Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the amphorae recovered from the site are about 4,400 to 4,700 years old. That is the Early Bronze Age, around the time the Great Pyramid was being built, the BBC reported.
Excavations began in 2026 under the Antalya Museum Directorate, with Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University as scientific lead, the ministry said.
No wood from the ship survives, so radiocarbon dating could not be used. Öniz said the team compared the amphorae, which have two handles, a ridge in the middle and a flat base, with pottery from Egypt and the Middle East. “Comparing the decoration techniques… we can definitely say our wreck is Early Bronze Age. This is 100%,” Öniz said.
What was found
The remains lie scattered across an underwater slope about 30 metres down, and divers could spend only about 30 minutes at a time on the site. Three large stone anchors were found, as well as more than 30 ceramic storage pots. The team says the ship was a trade vessel about 10 metres long.
A preliminary report on the site, published in 2026 in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, says Akdeniz University documented the wreck in 2024. Its authors, Öniz and C Öztosun, say it is not yet known whether any of the stone anchors belong to the wreck.
Dr Karin Sowada, an archaeologist from Macquarie University in Australia, examined the amphorae after they were recovered. Some were intact and still contained a viscous, glossy residue. The team is working to establish what they carried. The ministry said the vessels are thought to have held olive oil or wine, while Sowada said the residue could be olive oil, wine or tree resins, or the result of the jars being reused.
Clay analyses suggest the amphorae were probably made in workshops in the Jordan Valley, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said in a social media post. The ministry said similar amphorae have been found near the pyramids at Giza, Saqqara and Abusir in Egypt, and at Troy and in Crete.
The researchers believe the ship was taking goods to either Troy, in what is now north-western Turkey, or to the Minoan people in Crete.
The previous record holder was a wreck off the coast of Dokos, an island in southern Greece, which dates to about 4,200 years ago. Ersoy said the recovered artefacts would be displayed at the new Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology Museum in Antalya.
