No. 130

Uluburun shipwreck

Underwater Underwater

Information Description: Wooden model from the Shipwreck from Uluburun. Source: own work Date: June 2006 Author: Martin Bahmann — Martin Bahmann, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Where: Off southern Turkey
Built by: Late Bronze Age traders
Era: 1300s BCE
Known for: Cargo from seven cultures, including 10 tons of copper.
How it went under: It sank on a voyage around 1300 BCE.

cargo as it was scattered over the seabed; Uluburun shipwreck, St. Peter's castle, Bodrum, Turkey — Georges Jansoone (Jojan, CC BY-SA 3.0

Amarna letter. "Message from the king of Alashiya, your brother" to the Pharaoh of Egypt, possibly Akhenaten. Akkadian cuneiform text. The king of Alashiya (Cyprus) sends a large amount of copper and in return requests s — Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0

Weight anchor, beachrock, found in the Uluburun shipwreck, ca 1300 BC. Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology KW 3330. Height 75.4 cm, max. width 61 cm, max. thickness 22 cm, weight 148.3 kg. — Zunkir, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Background

The Uluburun Shipwreck is a Late Bronze Age shipwreck dated to the late 14th century BC, discovered close to the east shore of Uluburun (Grand Cape), Turkey, in the Mediterranean Sea. The shipwreck was discovered in the summer of 1982 by Mehmed Çakir, a local sponge diver from Yalıkavak, a village near Bodrum.

According to a reconstruction by various scholars, the Uluburun shipwreck illustrates a thriving commercial sea network of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean. In this case, a huge mixed cargo of luxury items, royal gifts and raw materials. Based on the findings, it has been suggested that Mycenaean officials were also aboard accompanying the gifts.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.