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Just off the
west coast of the Bodrum peninsula,
southwest of an island called Yassiada,
there is a submerged reef appropriately
referred to by some as The Ship Trap.
About A.D. 626, in the reign of Emperor
Heraclius, when the Persians and the
Avars were laying siege to Constantinople,
the capital of the East Roman Empire,
the reef claimed another victim, a
small ship bearing in its hold a cargo
of nearly a thousand wine amphorae.
For more than thirteen centuries the
shipwreck lay on the seabed until
it was discovered by Kemal Aras, a
Turkish diver, who then showed it
to Peter Throckmorton, an American
photo-journalist and diver in 1958.
Throckmorton investigated the wreck
and reported:
"We found the area of the cabin-galley,
clearly distinguishable because of
roof tiles and different types of
pottery scattered in a ten-foot area.
We brought up samples of every kind
of pottery we found: bowls, small
jars, and the two types of jars in
the main cargo. We were very careful
not to disturb the galley area or
to dig too deep, because this was
a shipwreck of a period never before
investigated, the time of the beginning
of the Byzantine Empire."
 The
shipwreck was excavated in a scientific
manner between 1961 and 1964 by a
team headed by George Bass, with Oguz
Alpozen, the current museum director,
joining the team in 1962. The wreck
lay on a slope ranging from 32 to
39 meters below the surface and was
dated by gold and copper coins found
among the artifacts. When closely
examined by experts the ship was shown
to have been built using the ancient
shell-first method below the waterline
and the modern frame-first technique
above the waterline, with the ship's
pine planks fastened to its elm frames
by iron spikes. The vessel carried
nine iron anchors, two placed on the
sides of the bow and seven resting
on deck just forward of the mast.
It is believed that the ship was steered
by sweeps extended on its aft quarters
and it probably carried only one sail.
 The
exhibit on display today is a replica
of the ship's stern section reconstructed
with new timber and positioned in
such a way as it probably was when
it first rested on the bottom after
sinking, before breaking up due to
the action of its underwater environment.
The ship's galley, where nearly all
of the personal possessions of those
on board were stored, is seen reconstructed
in great detail, including an iron
grill over a tiled firebox as it was
used by the ship's cook. This grill
and the iron spikes used for nailing
the planking to the frames were all
wrought true to their ancient forms
by a local blacksmith. The cooking
and table ware found in this shipwreck
is the largest well-dated collection
of ceramics from the seventh century,
including the earliest examples of
glazed Byzantine pottery. Also found
in the galley area were twenty-four
terra-cotta oil lamps and several
copper vessels as well as the tools
of the ship's carpenter. Lead fishing-net
sinkers indicate that the crew supplemented
their diet by fishing. The artifacts
found are displayed in glass cases
in the exhibit hall or, like the cargo
amphorae, in situ.
The name of Giorgios Presbyteros
Naukleros found on one of the ship's
steelyards suggests that this presbyter
of the church was the owner/merchant
and perhaps also the captain of the
ship and it is most likely that the
complete set of Byzantine weights
- one pound, six ounces, three ounces,
two ounces and one ounce - was his
property. Since the ship sank quite
close to the land it is quite possible
that those aboard were able to swim
ashore and were saved, but their inability
to salvage the ship and its cargo
has given us the opportunity to extend
our knowledge of the east Mediterranean
world in the seventh century.
The replica on display was built
by graduate students of the Institute
of Nautical Archaeology with the assistance
and cooperation of the director and
staff of the Bodrum Museum of Underwater
Archaeology. |
