Divers May Have Found the Oldest Shipwreck in the World Off Turkey

Keypoints:

• A shipwreck near Kekova Island off southern Turkey is believed to be 4,400 to 4,700 years old
• It dates to the Early Bronze Age, when the Great Pyramid of Giza was being built
• The wooden ship has rotted away, but its pottery cargo survived
• It lies about 100 feet underwater and was found in 2024 through clues from local seafarers
• It beats the previous record holder, a 4,200 year old wreck near Greece

Under about 100 feet of Mediterranean water off Turkey, archaeologists say they have found a ship that sank around the time the Egyptian pyramids were being built. If the dating holds up, it is the oldest shipwreck ever found.

The wreck lies near Kekova Island, west of the city of Antalya on Turkey's southern coast. Archaeologist Hakan Öniz of Akdeniz University found it in 2024 after local seafarers pointed him toward the spot. His team estimates the ship sank between 4,400 and 4,700 years ago. That puts it in the Early Bronze Age, and about 200 to 500 years older than the previous record holder, a wreck near the Greek island of Dokos that dates to roughly 4,200 years ago.

Don't expect to see a ship, though. The wooden hull is gone, eaten away over thousands of years. What survived was the cargo, which was mostly pottery. Ceramics expert Karin Sowada from Sydney studied more than 20 of the items to work out their age and origin. 

The clay colors, the decorations and the shapes of the jars all helped narrow it down. One jar had nine different markings and two holes, and experts think it may have been used to churn cheese or butter.

The team believes the ship was traveling along the southern Turkish coast when it hit rocks during a storm. It may have been carrying valuable goods like oil, wine or tree resin. Researchers are now studying what the jars once held.

The find matters because it gives a rare window into early trade. Four and a half thousand years ago, merchants were already moving goods across the Mediterranean, and this wreck suggests those trade networks were more developed than many historians thought.

Be careful with the word "oldest" though. The dating is an estimate based on the pottery, and the team describes it as the oldest known shipwreck, not an absolute certainty. More study should firm up the date.