Archaeologists have used drones and an old cold war spy boat to identify three shipwrecks on the Mediterranean seabed. One contains artefacts dating back over 2000 years, hinting at a vast network of trade during the rise of ancient Greek city states like Athens.
“If our dates are correct, this is just as Alexander the Great is beginning his conquest,” says team leader at the (OET), whose father Robert discovered the wreck of the Titanic.
In 2010 and 2012, Ben Ballard and his colleagues explored the Eratosthenes seamount, an underwater plateau south of Cyprus, on expeditions supported by the OET. They scanned the seamount using the OET’s Nautilus vessel, which was originally a spy boat built by East Germany in the 1970s, plus other technology such as underwater drones.
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In 2010, the team found two shipwrecks and 70 artefacts. When they returned in 2012, they discovered a third shipwreck and 149 artefacts. They have now described their finds.
In deep water
The Eratosthenes seamount is an ideal preservation site, because it is 600 to 800 metres down. That is deep enough for it not to be disturbed by deep-sea trawlers while remaining much more accessible than most of the Mediterranean, which averages 2100 to 2600 metres deep. It’s also far from the coast, so artefacts have not been buried by sediment run-off.
“Deep water has an advantage [in] that it hasn’t been looted, it hasn’t been trawled,” says underwater archaeologist at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Ballard says the Mediterranean seabed probably holds thousands of wrecks from the last few millennia. Still, individual boats are hard to find. In order to discover them, the researchers followed ancient trash trails.
Ancient mariners often cast large clay jars, called amphorae, into the water after using up the wine or other contents. So many amphorae were dumped that the Nautilus could follow them like a trail of breadcrumbs.
Ancient seafarers
Two of the shipwrecks were Ottoman vessels from the 19th century. The third was dated to the 4th century BC, the time of Alexander the Great.
The team also found a huge quantity of amphorae, which they dated based on their styles. Most were made from about 800 BC onwards. They came from all around the Mediterranean, including Egypt, Greece and Phoenician cities around modern-day Lebanon.
The finds are evidence for widespread trading across the Mediterranean around 350 BC. “This is at the time of the rise of the Greek city states,” says Ballard. “You have thriving trade between Greece, between Asia Minor and Egypt, you have the copper mines in Cyprus.”
Some of the amphorae come from the Greek island of Chios, which at the time was noted for the high quality of its wine. At least some ancient sailors, it seems, were knocking back the good stuff. “It shows there was a taste for expensive goods even back then,” says Henderson.
Far from shore
One particularly ancient Canaanite piece may date from as long ago as 1500 BC – the time of the Mycenaean Greek civilisation, which according to legend fought the Trojan War. Its presence suggests that there was widespread trading even then.
It may also be significant that the ships ranged so far out to sea. Many scholars have assumed that ancient mariners feared the open sea and so clung to the coast. But Ballard says it’s now clear that some took shortcuts across deeper waters.
Henderson says this is no surprise to underwater archaeologists, but those who focus on land have so far been unaware of it. What’s more, he says, archaeologists often talk about the agricultural and industrial revolutions but don’t talk enough about the seafaring revolution and its significance for modern society.
Deep Sea Research Part II