Archaeologists claim to have found evidence of wreckage from the Bronze Age

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Bronze Age shipwreck: Archaeologists find clues in copper bars

Photo: Mateusz Popek / NicolausCopernicus University in Toruń

One of the world's oldest wrecks may lie off the coast of Turkey - or at least what's left of it.

Researchers claim to have identified the remains of a ship that they assign to the 16th century or 17th century - BC.

According to the team from Poland's Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń, the ship was carrying copper from Cyprus that would be used to make bronze.

The “Scinexx” portal first reported.

However, the team was unable to find the wreck itself; there was no rusty iron structure or wooden skeleton.

The only information about the ship is the cargo - the copper, reports Andrzej Pydyn, who led the investigation, according to a statement from February.

The team is certain that the copper ended up on the seabed as a result of a ship disaster.

The situation suggests that leaving the Bay of Antalya onto the open sea is dangerous; many ships have sunk in the area at different times.

At the same time, it is an important natural waterway.

Shape provides important information

It is said that 30 copper bars have been recovered so far; experts refer to them as so-called “oxhide bars”.

One of these bars weighs around 20 kilograms.

It is said that the arrangement suggests that the ship collided with a rock and then sank quickly.

The hull must have been damaged and the load then slipped down the slope, which was very steep at this point.

In some places isolated bars were found, in others several at once, reports the specialist team.

The researchers suspect further finds in deeper water.

To date the remains, the team examined the shape of the ingots in more detail.

The age can be seen from this because it changes over the years.

“Typologically, the bars are among the earliest known,” said Pydyn.

According to him, the find dates back to the 16th, perhaps even the 17th century BC.

»In fact, we are already moving from the Late Bronze Age to the Middle Bronze Age.«

The researchers assume that there must be other wrecks from the Late Bronze Age in the area, as copper was traded intensively at that time.

Copper ore was only mined in a few places, so demand was enormous.

"The scale of the trade was very large, and the more ships sailed, the more of them sank," said Pydyn.

It could take up to three years until all the copper bars are recovered, they say.

It is possible that other artifacts would also be found that could be assigned to a ship.

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