NEWS: 2,400 Year Old Greek Trading Vessel Discovered Intact 6,000 Feet under the Black Sea

Though the last few months have been busy, I did not want to let one of the most important and interesting archaeological finds of 2018 pass unmentioned.  In October, a remotely operated submersible discovered the wreck of a Greek trading vessel at the bottom of the Black Sea.  Dated to 400 BC, the shipwreck is the world’s oldest known intact Greek vessel.

Normally, the remains of a ship of this age would be fragmentary.  However, this wreck is 6,000 below the surface where the anaerobic water contains no organisms to eat away the wooden hull.  Thus, the ship is in nearly the same condition as when it sank over 2,400 years ago.  Even the mast is still standing in place.  A member of the exploration team, Helen Farr, described the wreck as “so perfectly preserved it feels like you step back in time.”

Before this find there were no actual examples of Greek trading boats from what was an important historical era in the Ancient World.  In previously discovered wrecks, the wood had disintegrated leaving only more hardy, inorganic artifacts.  For example, all that remained of a ship discovered in 2001 was a pile of amphorae, lead anchors and other such non-organic artifacts.  Archaeologists had to guess the size and shape of the vessel based on estimates of the cargo size, weight of the anchors, placement of artifacts, etc..  In a few cases some wood might survive if immediately buried in the sea floor, but those remains are rare and incomplete.

The only other evidence of the size and construction of merchant vessels came in the form of artistic depictions.  The most famous example is the Siren Vase which tells the well-known story of Odysseus on his long voyage home after the sack of Troy strapped to a mast to prevent being called to certain doom by the sirens’ song.  The team that made this discovery have noted the current wreck closely resembles the ship on the vase which adds some historical value to some artistic works.

This trading vessel sank circa 400 BC, during a pivotal historical era in the Mediterranean when the Greek culture was on the rise.  Their climb took place over the course of over 2,000 years.  The Greeks were one of the first seafaring peoples trading across the Mediterranean beginning with the Minoans based in Crete whose wares begin appearing in Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia circa 2,700 BC.  The Minoans influenced the Mycenaean culture which grew up on the Peloponnese Peninsula circa 2,000 BC.  (See: NEWS: Intricately carved Minoan warriors reflects previously unknown skill)  By 1,600 BC, the Mycenaeans emerged as an independent trading people who likely conquered the Minoans circa 1,400 BC taking over their trading routes.

The Bronze Age came crashing down in the 12th century BC under somewhat mysterious circumstances.  Several factors may have contributed including the migration/invasion of the mysterious Sea Peoples who swept across the Mediterranean as far as Egypt, natural disasters, disease and internal upheaval.  Whatever the cause several major Bronze Age cultures including the Hittites and Mycenaeans disappeared and Egypt’s New Kingdom tottered toward downfall.

New empires grew up successively, from more inland peoples not affected by the ravages of the Sea Peoples successively in Assyria, Babylon and Persia.  The Mycenaeans suffered greatly losing up to 90% of their population descending into a 400 year period known as the Greek Dark Ages.  The Phoenicians from modern Lebanon managed to avoid the destructive upheaval of the 12th century BC replacing the Mycenaeans as the dominant trading culture.  They developed trade routes and colonies mostly on the southern rim of the Mediterranean (but also on western Sicily and Sardinia).  Carthage stands out as their most famous and successful colony.

In the Dark Age, Greek culture recovered and morphed.  The rocky, hilly terrain of Greece splintered Mycenaean remnants into small city states that fostered commercial competition.  Greece was close enough to the Near and Far East to benefit from innovation and trade, but too distant for invasion.  These fledgling Greek city states adapted Phoenician trading habits such as weights and measures, alphabet, monetary values and practices, improved shipbuilding, artistic skills in stone, ivory, pottery, metals, fabrics– introducing human and animal representations.  The Greeks went further adding their particular knowledge to Phoenician wares and began expanding.

Recent scholarly economic studies demonstrate the standard of living in Greek city states circa 800 BC lagged behind that of other cultures.  With limited natural resources and no easy land routes, the Greeks returned to the seas to provide necessities and re-establish trade ties.  Greek merchants and colonists began plying the Mediterranean and Black Sea with new found vigor establishing colonies in Sicily, Italy expanding to the Black Sea coast and Anatolia (modern Turkey).  These new politically independent colonies remained in coastal regions to trade with cultures from the interior.  Plato more colorfully described the situation: “We Greeks sit around the sea like frogs on a pond.”  In Italy for example, Greek cities sprung up to exchange their goods for Etruscan copper.

Colonies were similar in geography, climate and soil to Greece.  Before long, in addition to above mentioned wares, the Greeks began exporting what became known as the Greek triad: wheat, grapes, and olives.  Greek colonies and trade transformed places like Italy from an agrarian economy made up of small villages, primitive farms and cattle into larger urban areas embedded in a countryside covered with vineyards and olive groves.  Establishing colonies along the Black Sea coast facilitated trade with Asia allowing goods to be traded from Asia to Spain.  Newly founded Greek colonies such as Neapolis (New City—now Naples), Rhegium (Reggio), Paestum, Syracusa, Taraes (Tarentum), Callipolis (Gallipoli), and Massalia (Marseille) became emporiums where merchants could trade local products and wares for goods from across the Mediterranean.  Greek culture, artistic creations, religion, martial arts and other skills and attributes began permeating civilizations all over the Mediterranean.  The influences spread further through intermediaries such as the aforementioned Etruscans in central Italy, who brought Greek culture to a small city state of Latins named Rome.

The era of this newly discovered shipwreck comes in the century, 500-400 BC, when the Greeks had fully emerged from their Dark Ages to become a vibrant and powerful set of city-states.  Athens and Sparta led the way in forming the Delian League and were in the process of repulsing incursions from the Persian Empire.   Trading ships like this recently found vessel were instrumental to spreading Greek culture, goods and knowhow all over the Mediterranean region into the Near East.  This vessel would have sunk about a century before Alexander crushed the Persians and conquered the Middle East.

I am attaching a timeline summarizing the events discussed above.

Interesting questions remain about this shipwreck.  In this era, trading ships varied in size (sometimes greatly) and in cargo.  The vessel has a mast and supports for oars which confirms sailors of the day used wind and muscle.  The traditional view that trading vessels of the age hugged the coast has come into doubt.  Recently, scholars have opined the Greeks may have been able to operate in open seas.  This discovery may shed light on maritime practices.

Today archaeologists will leave finds intact when possible and utilize non-invasive methods to conduct further exploration.  One recent technique involves 3-D copying of sites allowing for scale reconstructions which aid in determining the size and capacity of the ship.  Micro ROVs might be used to enter the vessel without damaging the hull to provide visual evidence of the interior.

In past posts, I have highlighted other non-invasive techniques such as muon particle detection studies of the Great Pyramid at Giza (See: NEWS: New Discovery of a Large Hidden Room in the Great Pyramid) or the use of laser (Lidar) technology to map the floor of Central American jungles to reveal undiscovered Mayan buildings.  (See: New Mayan Ruins Discovered: The Scientific Method, Technology, and Wider Implications).  Similar techniques may not as yet be available underwater but hopefully will be in the near future.  It is important to remember that well preserved remains can take time to research fully.  The frozen and fully intact body of Otzi was uncovered in Italy in 1991 and though his remains have been thoroughly examined for years, new discoveries continue to come to light even 27 years later (See: Otzi the Iceman, a 5,300 Year Old European Mummy Reveals the Complexity and Sophistication of Neolithic Human Culture).

This discovery was made as part of a general survey of the Black Sea floor.  As of now no funds have been allocated or archaeological teams assembled to investigate the site.  Fortunately, there is no need to rush.  Looting is often an issue with newly discovered sites, but this one is 2 miles underwater and accessible only by expensive remote submersibles.  That will make any undertaking expensive but will also limit the possibility of unauthorized scavengers stealing artifacts and disrupting the site.  Further, because the hull of the vessel is intact, future expeditions will not encounter common problems in underwater archaeology such as settling, redistribution of artifacts and drift.  Archaeologists should be able to make unprecedented discoveries without having to engage in the usual guesswork over fragmentary remains.

This is a story that has yet to be fully told and holds great promise for filling in gaps in our understanding of one of the more important developments in the Ancient World.  I will follow developments and report back on any new details.  I have attached links to several news articles below for further reference.

https://www.history.com/news/oldest-shipwreck-discovery-ancient-greece

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45951132

Sources (other than the news articles above):

Morris, Ian. “Economic Growth in Ancient Greece.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE) / Zeitschrift Für Die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft 160, no. 4 (2004): 709-42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40752487.

Astour, Michael C. “Ancient Greek Civilization in Southern Italy.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 19, no. 1 (1985): 23-37. doi:10.2307/3332556.

David Scaradozzi, Laura Sorbi, Francesco Zoppini, Tools and techniques for underwater archaeological sites documentation (unpublished): ftp://dns.soest.hawaii.edu/bhowe/outgoing/IEEEOES_2013/papers/130510-002.pdf

Mark Cartwright, Trade in Ancient Greece.  Ancient History Encyclopedia (May 22, 2018). https://www.ancient.eu/article/115/trade-in-ancient-greece/

Eric Cline, 1177 BC, the Year Civilization Collapsed.  New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2014.

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