The world’s oldest deep-sea shipwreck was recently discovered in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea by an energy company surveying the seafloor ahead of developing a gas field. The ship sank approximately 3,300 to 3,400 years ago 56 miles (90 km) off the northern coast of Israel and lies at a depth of 1.1 miles (1.8 km). A robotic submersible was used to investigate the shipwreck and bring up two jars, which have been identified as typical Canaanite storage jars from the Late Bronze Age. Organic material was taken from the jars and has been sent to an Israel Antiquities Authority laboratory for residue analysis. The cause of the shipwreck is unknown, but the vessel may have been caught in a storm or sprung a leak on its way to one of the Phoenician port cities of Tyre, Sidon or Byblos. The discovery demonstrates that mariners in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC could sail in the middle of the sea, out of site of the shoreline, contrary to what many scholars previously believed.
OFF-SITE LINKS:
- https://www.timesofisrael.com/3300-year-old-ship-found-off-israeli-coast-is-oldest-ever-found-in-deep-waters/
- https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2024-06-20/ty-article/energy-company-finds-earliest-deep-sea-shipwreck-and-its-canaanite/00000190-30c6-d39e-a999-76ce580f0000
Read more BREAKING NEWS articles here: https://biblearchaeology.org/current-events-list
