Scientists discover "oldest deep-sea shipwreck" a mile beneath

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Just a reminder that there are plenty of undiscovered secrets lurking beneath the waves:

Golden sunlight fell on the two amphorae, still caked in brown ooze, as they breached the Mediterranean’s waves. … It was the first daylight they had seen in at least 3,200 years, and they came from the only Bronze Age shipwreck discovered in deep waters.

When they say “deep waters,” they’re not kidding: The ancient jars had come frorm “more than a mile down and 60 miles from land” and the ascent had taken three hours.

The wreck is “the only ship from this period that was found in the deep sea.” Most, understandably, have been found in shallower waters.

Interestingly enough, the jars can be dated with relative accuracy:

These workaday ceramics evolved so consistently over the centuries that they can be reliably dated with an examination of their shape and design. Based on the recently discovered jars’ neck, the pronounced angle of their shoulders and their pointed base, these amphorae are estimated to date to between 1400 and 1200 B.C.E., the [Israel Antiquities Authority] said in a recent press release.

The wreck dates from a time of major commercial activity in the region. When it was still above-ground, the ship and its crew “sailed a world of prolific international trade, diplomacy and relative stability in the eastern Mediterranean.”

(“Relative stability…” Ahh, remember that?)

In an effort to better nail down the ship’s origins and purpose, scientists are running a “so-called petrographic analysis of the ceramics to try to pinpoint where they came from; analyses of residue and trace elements could help identify their contents.”