Bronze Age cargo wreck off Turkey may predate known oldest shipwreck

Archaeologists suspect a wreck found in shallow water near Kekova, Turkey, is the oldest known shipwreck, with an initial date of roughly 2700–2400 B.C. Although little of the vessel remains, pottery from its cargo helped the team estimate its age. The find, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, could change views of Early Bronze Age trade across the Mediterranean.

The wreck lies in shallow water near Kekova, west of Antalya. Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University found it in 2024 after local seafarers provided clues. Because the vessel’s timbers are gone, researchers relied on cargo pottery to propose a date of roughly 2700–2400 B.C. That is earlier than the Dokos wreck, previously considered about 4,200 years old.

The cargo included large two-handled, flat-based ceramic jars, some with a raised clay band around their widest point. Divers spent four months removing pottery encrusted with barnacles from a rocky underwater slope. The ship appears to have been following southern Turkey’s coast and may have sheltered between two islands during a storm. The findings have not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal.