3,500-year-old shipwreck — one of world’s oldest — sank carrying items in hot demand

Around 3,500 years ago, a merchant vessel carrying precious cargo sank in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, coming to a rest on the seabed below.

Over the centuries, its wooden hull was eaten away by underwater worms, leaving no trace of its existence. But its cargo — bars of copper — stood the test of time.

The bars, a hot commodity in Bronze Age Europe, were recently examined by divers, who shed light on their ancient origins and the ill-fated ship that carried them, according to a news release from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland.

The bars — which likely constitute the oldest known copper-carrying shipwreck — were found in the Bay of Antalya, located in southern Turkey.

Divers found about 30 of them, each weighing around 44 pounds, meaning the ship’s total tonnage was over 1,000 pounds, researchers said.

Judging by the way they were stacked, it was determined that the vessel fell victim to a maritime disaster, quickly submerging beneath the surface after hitting rocks.

Based on their size and shape, researchers concluded that the bars were manufactured sometime during the 16th or 17th centuries B.C.

During this period, the Bay of Antalya served as a crucial hub along the sea route to Cyprus, where most of Europe’s copper was mined.

The copper trade existed on a massive scale at the time as the resource was in hot demand throughout the continent.

Developing societies, including those in Egypt, required copious amounts of the material, researchers said.

It was used to manufacture objects, including tools and weapons, such as swords and daggers, according to research from the Penn Museum.

The most impressive aspect of the discovery is the bars’ age, Andrzej Pydyn, a university professor affiliated with the finds, told Science in Poland. If it’s not the oldest wreck, it’s among the oldest — confirming the complexity of the copper trade thousands of years ago.

Further analyses will be carried out on the bars, and additional dives will be scheduled at the wreck site, where other objects could be found buried, researchers said.

Google Translate was used to translate the news release from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

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