The Late Bronze Age Shipwreck (ca. 1300 B.C.E.) at Uluburun, Turkey

March 27, 2001
Building and Room TBA
8PM

The excavation by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology of a late 14th century shipwreck at Uluburun, in southern Turkey, revealed a rich and diverse cargo of raw materials and manifactured goods. The ship's cargo, perhaps a royal one, comprises one of the largest and wealthiest assemblages of trade goods found in the Mediterranean. The bulk of the cargo consists of 10 tons of copper ingots and nearly a ton of tin ingots. Additionally the ship carried a ton of terebinth resin in Canaanite amphoras, more than 150 disk-shaped glass ingots, hippopotamus and elephant tusks, ostrich eggshells, and ebony logs. Manufactured goods include Cypriot pottery stored in large jars, glass beads, faience drinking cups, musical instruments, and ivory cosmetics containers in the shape of ducks. Cooking wares, grinding trays and mortars, bronze tools, fishing implements, and some foodstuffs were for shipboard use. The Canaanite and Egyptian jewelry, Near Eastern cylinder seals, bronze weapons, pan-balance weights, and two writing boards were probably the personal effects of those on board.

The composition of the cargo indicates that the ship had sailed from a Canaanite or Cypriot port, while personal possessions of the crew suggest a home port in the same general region. The discovery of a bronze female figurine, partly clad in gold foil, and of an ivory trumpet may indicate a Canaanite origin for the ship. The presence of two Mycenaeans of rank aboard, presumably as envoys or passengers, is suggested by pairs of seals, swords, and glass relief beads. Sections of the oldest seagoing hull yet discovered and 24 stone anchors also have been uncovered.