“Ancient Secrets Unveiled: Divers Discover Olive Oil Shipwreck from the 9th Century, Revealing a Maritime Mystery!”
“The wreck was very interesting due to its depth and its cargo. Olive oil and wine were goods carried by ships in ancient times. But what came out of one amphora was particularly striking. While [the ship’s] existence was known, we had never seen these findings in amphorae until now. In fact, there are only a few examples of it globally, and this is a first in Türkiye,” Öniz told Hurriyet Daily News.
The Ship’s Origins And Its Place In The Olive Oil Trade In The Mediterranean
Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Restoration at Akdeniz UniversityA diver retrieves some of the ship’s artifacts from the sea floor.
After retrieving a number of artifacts from the shipwreck, Öniz and his crew got to work analyzing them for clues about the ship’s origins and its fateful last journey.
Details on the amphorae and the ship revealed that they originated from Palestine roughly 1,100 years ago, in the 9th and 10th centuries C.E.
Researchers believe that the ship encountered a storm off the coast of modern-day Kaş, Türkiye, and sank after hitting a rock or small island.
“This ship that we were working on was caught in a storm off the coast of Kaş while it was being transported from Gaza to a point we do not yet know with olive oil loaded in amphoras. It sank after hitting a small rock or a small island there,” Öniz explained to Milliyet.
Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Restoration at Akdeniz UniversityResearchers sift through the artifacts, including intact olive seeds.
Based on the typology of the amphorae and the importance of Gaza as a production center for olive oil, the research team felt confident that this region was the ship’s place of origin. As far back as the Bronze Age (2,000 B.C.E. to 700 B.C.E.), Gaza was a major center of olive oil production.
Post Comment