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The shipwreck of Uluburun

a sensational found from the Bronze age

 

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so könnte das Schiff beladen worden sein

 the way it was loaded

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With the copper ingots loaded in Cyprus, the vessel sank at Besadalar (Five Islands), opposite Cape Gelidonya between Finike and Antalya.

Underwater-Archaeology is not yet 50 years old, but this new branch of science could give to archaeology in general a lot of new impulses. Hundrets of shipwrecks have been excavated from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea in the last years but the wreck from Uluburun now shown in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology is a real spectacular found.

A hall specially built for this wreck has been arrached to the Museum in the Crusaders castle to host this wreck, perhaps the oldest wreck known so far.
The scientiflc investigation of the wreck was begun in October 1982 by a team led by Bodrum Museum Director T. Oguz Alpözen and George F. Bass - pioneer of Underwater Archaeology from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University.



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The shipwreck hall
The hall consists of three sections. Just inside the entry, finds from the Cape Gelidonya (late 13 th century BC) and Seytan Deresi (16 th Century B.C) shipwrecks are exhibited.
On the left side of this room are artifacts gathered by the first scientific shipwreck excavation in the world, at Gape Gelidonya. The site of the wreck was shown to the archaeologists by Captain Kemal Aras, a Bodrum sponge boat owner. The shipwreck was excavated in 1960 under the direction of George F. Bass.
This was a Syrian merchant's trading vessel. The artifacts excavated from the wreck shed light an the international relations of the period.


Organic materials are preserved under water much better than on land and this also was valid for the Uluburun shipwreck. Glands, almonds, figs olives and even pomegranates were found. We do not know was it provisions or freight. Partly the pottery on board for sure was used but also big jars were found with carefully packed pots from Cyprus. Gold- and silver jewelry was found as tools and arms made from bronce.

The founds.click on pictures to enlarge

 

 

 

statuette

 

log book

 

goblet

 

gold work


Of the 354 complete copper oxhide ingots and 121 bun ingots found on the Uluburun wreck, 81 were cleaned, drawn, recorded, and examined between June and November of 1995, bringing the total that have been studied to date to 180. Particular attention was devoted to the modification of the oxhide ingot typology first established by H. G. Buchholz, and later modified by G.F. Bass in his study of the 34 examples from the Cape Gelidonya shipwreck. There are 31 ingots of a type unique to Uluburun, provided with only two handle-like protrusions, one on each corner of one of the ingot's long sides. We have designated these as type 4. For the purpose of our research, the traditional type 3, as well as type 4, have each been divided into 4 subtypes. These subdivisions are primarily based on the ratios of the ingots' dimensions and on the shape of the handle-like protrusions.

In addition to the morphological features of these ingots, we have documented and studied the marks chiseled into their surfaces. Although most of the ingots still need to be cleaned of surface encrustation, preliminary examination has revealed that at least half of the oxhide ingots, or about 160 examples, are incised with at least one, and possibly as many as three, marks on their upper or rougher surfaces opposite their mold sides. In addition, six oxhide ingots bear linear incisions along their shorter edges, but only three of these six examples are also associated with marks on the upper surface. In contrast, only 28 out of the 121 bun ingots appear to be marked. This is still a high percentage, considering that (so far as we know) no marked bun ingots have been found in any other land or underwater site. On the Uluburun bun ingots, these marks are always single marks on their lower, or smoother mold sides. An exception is KW 1088, which shows an incised mark on its rough surface.

In some cases, the incisions are preserved sufficiently to document the individual chisel strokes in the mark, thereby allowing us to determine not only the sequence in which the strokes were made, but also the shape and size of the chisel used and the angle at which it was struck. Close attention should be given here to the traces of wear discernible on the chisels found on board the ship to determine if some of these tools may have been used to mark the ingots. If so, this discovery may provide some information about when these marks were made.

The 64 marks thus far examined on the surfaces of oxhide and bun ingots comprise only 32 different shapes. Of these marks, 13 appear more than once (fig.1: 1b,1d, 2c-d, 3b, 4b-d, 5a, 6c-d, 7c-d) and one is repeated at least six times (fig.1: 4d). Some marks are common to both the oxhide and bun ingots, but there are fewer types of markings on the latter variety of ingot. Of the six types of marks observed on the bun ingots, five are also found on the oxhide shape (fig.1: 2d, 3b, 4b, 4d, 6d). The sixth mark, however, is found only on the oval bun ingots and appears on all six of them. The precise location of the marks on the surfaces of the oxhide ingots, and the diverse mark combinations, do not appear to follow any specific pattern. The specific marks cannot be associated with certain ingot subtypes. The marks vary in complexity from a simple cross (fig.1: 5a) or a fishhook (fig,1: 1c) to a complicated trident (fig.1: 2b), a fish-like shape (fig.1: 7b) or a sailing boat (fig.1: 5b). One of the Uluburun marks (fig. l: 3a), also seen on a copper oxhide ingot from Ayia Triada in Crete, seems to find its parallel in the later 11th-century B.C. northwestern Semitic syllabary. In only one instance does a perfectly identical mark, almost certainly made by the same hand (i.e. same orientation of stroke, depth of incision, size of tool, etc.) appear on two separate oxhide ingots (fig.1: 2c). Each of the two ingots thus marked also has a second V-shaped mark chiseled along one of its shorter edges. These two ingots do not belong to the same ingot subtype, but future studies may reveal identically-marked examples on the same subtype. Any markings of this nature may have profound implications for our understanding of ancient metallurgical practices and the mechanisms by which these ingots were distributed.

Lead-isotope analysis is also imperative for determining the source(s) of copper from which the ingots were most likely cast, and establishing possible correlations between copper source, ingot types, and incised marks. Samples for lead-isotope studies were also taken from 71 other bronze and copper objects from Cape Gelidonya, and 14 tin ingots from Uluburun. This may enable further correlations between the sources of the ingots and the sources of the metal in the artifacts.


 

George Bass

George F. Bass - pioneer of Underwater Archaeology


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