Ancient Shipwreck Found Off Israel’s Coast Reveals Mysterious Blend of Christian and Islamic Symbols—What Secrets Could It Hold?
According to The Jerusalem Post, the university’s Institute for Maritime Studies has gained invaluable insight into the region’s cultural life at the time. The 85-foot ship yielded 103 Greco-Roman jars (or amphorae) filled with agricultural products and well-preserved Greek and Arabic writing.
Published in the Near Eastern Archaeology journal, the findings detail how much has been learned about the transition between Byzantine and Islamic rule, ship construction, and the standardized ship routes of the time.
The chance discovery by Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael members has made this find all the more remarkable, as this is officially the largest maritime cargo collection of Byzantine and early Islamic pottery ever found in Israel.
University of Haifa, Institute for Maritime Studies
Since the vessel seemed to have wrecked fewer than 100 feet from the coast, it’s unlikely that anyone aboard died during the accident. Fortunately for modern-day researchers, the sea and sand have preserved the ship and its contents rather well, ever since.
“We have not been able to determine with certainty what caused the ship to wreck, but we think it was probably a navigational mistake,” said study author and university archaeologist Deborah Cvikel. “We are talking about an unusually large vessel, which was carefully built and is beautifully conserved.”
What the experts do seem fairly certain about is the ship’s trade route. Cvikel said that it “was definitely traveling around the Levant,” with stops in Cyprus, Egypt, and potentially another port on Israel’s coast — before succumbing to the ocean.
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