9-7-2012-CapeGelidonya-Uluburun-Greek-Pres-5 - Eastern ...

A Tale of Three Ships:
Bronze Age Shipwrecks
Thera/Akrotiri, Ship procession Fresco, ca. 1600 B.C.
Dr. Kristian L. Lorenzo

A Tale of Three Ships:
Bronze Age Shipwrecks
Thera/Akrotiri, detail of Ship Procession Fresco, ca. 1600 B.C.

Dates, Dates, Dates…
• Absolute Dates: e.g. 1300 B.C.; 266 B.C.
• Centuries: e.g. 3 rd B.C.; 4 th c. A.D.
B.C. = Before Christ;
A.D. = Anno Domino = Latin for “In the year
of our lord” so after Christ
• Periods: e.g. Late Bronze Age; Hellenistic Period

For this Class…
• The Bronze Age: ca. 1800-1100 B.C.
• The Archaic Period: ca. 900-480 B.C.
• The Classical Period: ca. 479-323 B.C.
• The Early Hellenistic Period: ca. 323-200 B.C.
• The Hellenistic Period: ca. 323-29 B.C.

Ships: The Basic Elements

A Tale of Three Ships: Today’s Topics
The Grand Congloué Ship
George Bass
The Cape Gelidonya Ship
The Uluburun Ship

In 1952 underwater shipwrecks
gain Academic attention.
Non-diver archaeologist Fernand
Benoit and non-archaeologist divers
including Jacque Cousteau
excavate 2 cargo ships.
The Grand Congloué Ship

The Grand Congloué Ship
Amphorae: ceramic vessels for the storage and transport of
commodities, trade items, gifts, etc

George Bass
Founder of scientific maritime Archaeology
Founder of scientific nautical archaeology
An Archaeologist First
A Diver Second
Directed the excavation of the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck
Founder of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology –
http://inadiscover.com/

Excavated by: George Bass
and the University of
Pennsylvania
Location: off Cape
Gelidonya, Turkey
Date: ca. 1200 B.C.
Depth: ca. 81 ft
Excavation: 1960
Type: Merchant vessel, ca.
40 ft long
The Cape Gelidonya Ship

The Cape Gelidonya Ship
• Both the director, George Bass, and his excavation
team are all archaeologists first and divers second.

The Cape Gelidonya Ship: Basic Methods Learned
• Every feature of the shipwreck site is recorded in situ
with drawings (plans) and photography

The Cape Gelidonya Ship: Basic Methods Learned

The Cape Gelidonya Ship: Basic Methods Learned
The map (plan) of every archaeological site is recorded in 2 planes:
horizontal and vertical

The Cape Gelidonya Ship: Basic Methods Learned
The airlift is normally the pick and shovel of maritime archaeology

The Cape Gelidonya Ship: Primary Cargo
40 copper Ox hide ingots with 27 from Cyprus (ingot: a mass of metal cast in a form
convenient for shaping, re-melting or refining)

The Cape Gelidonya Ship: Secondary Cargo
Several hundred broken bronze tools, including axes, adzes, picks, hoes, etc

The Cape Gelidonya Ship: What’s so
Important?
Offered a new scientific model for how underwater
excavations should be conducted
Based upon analysis of the ship and its cargo:
It was Near Eastern in origin, perhaps Syrian
It was crewed by Syrians and/or Phoenicians
Challenged the notion that mainly Minoans and/or
Mycenaeans were traders and merchants ca. 1200 B.C.

Excavated by: Institute of
Nautical Archaeology
Location: near Uluburun
(“Grand Promontory”) Turkey
Date: late 14 th century B.C.
Depth: 135-200 ft
Excavation: 1984-1994
Type: Merchant vessel,
ca. 49 ft
The Uluburun Ship
Italy
Greece
Turkey

The Uluburun Ship
Big Finds: Ship made from Lebanese Cedar planks which grow in
Lebanon, southern Turkey and Cyprus. A modern replica.

The Uluburun Ship:
“Shell-First” Mortise-and-Tenon Construction
• Wood Planks
• Oak Pegs
• Mortise holes
• Tenons

Big Finds: Cypriot Copper “Ox-Hide”
Ingots

Big Finds:
Cypriot/Near
Eastern Stone
Anchors

The Uluburun Ship: Small Finds
Cypriot, Near Eastern and Mycenaean Ceramic Vessels:

Jewelry from the area of the Black Sea

Ivory: Hippopotamus Teeth from Egypt

Weapons from the area of Albania,
Bulgaria, etc.

Near Eastern, Mycenaean and Italic
Swords

Scarab: Nefertiti
This scarab provides a “Smoking-Gun” for dating purposes allowing a terminuspost-quem
(Latin for “a point after which”) for when the ship sank. Nefertiti
disappeared from historical records after the 12th year of her husband Akhenaton’s
reign ca. 1340 B.C.

The Uluburun Ship
A computer model showing the Uluburun ship fully loaded.

The Uluburun Ship: What’s so Important?
Several widely dispersed cultures represented = Great
evidence for international trade/elite gift giving
- Baltic Region, Black Sea area, Syro-Palestinian coast,
Egypt, Mycenaean Greek mainland, Italy/Sicily

The Uluburun Ship: What’s so
Important?
Oldest intact shipwreck studied by archaeologists
The maritime equivalent to King Tutankhamun’s
tomb – it sank around the time of his death or after

The Uluburun Ship: What’s so Important?
Cargo is well-preserved and able to shed “material”
light on objects seen only in Egyptian tomb
paintings or mentioned in Egyptian royal
diplomatic correspondence