Uluburun shipwreck, Bronze Age shipwreck site near Kas, Antalya Province, Turkey.
The Uluburun shipwreck is a submerged merchant vessel off the coast of Kaş in Antalya Province, lying on the seabed between 44 and 61 meters below the surface. The roughly 15-meter-long ship contained thousands of artifacts that have been preserved through the millennia and are now displayed at the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.
The vessel sank around 1320 BCE and was discovered in 1982 by a sponge diver, making it one of the oldest known merchant wrecks. Scientific examination from 1984 to 1994 revealed trade relationships between distant Bronze Age cultures.
The cargo reveals trade networks connecting Egypt, Canaan, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Baltic region through copper, tin, glass, and amber. Ancient peoples from distant lands exchanged their most valuable goods, showing how interconnected the world was even thousands of years ago.
The wreck lies at great depth, so only experienced diving is possible; visitors can view the recovered items at the museum instead. The museum provides an organized exhibition with all major objects and explanations about ancient seafaring and the vessel.
The ship carried ten tons of copper and one ton of tin in a 10:1 ratio, showing that people already understood how to make bronze. This precise ratio on a vessel from over three thousand years ago reveals how advanced ancient knowledge of metalworking was.
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