A Bronze - Age ship that sank around 3,300 geezerhood ago has been discovered on the Mediterranean Sea floor , along with its cargo of hundreds of intact jars that once stored merchandise . Located around 90 kilometers ( 56 miles ) off the northerly coast of Israel and at a depth of 1,800 meters ( 6,000 feet ) , the ancient vessel is the older ever found in the bass ocean .
Until now , allshipwrecksdated to the Bronze Age – which began a little over 5,000 years ago – had been discovered in shallow waters close to the shoreline . For example , theworld ’s oldest recognise sunken vesselis turn up just off the seacoast of the Greek island of Dokos and is thought to have met its remnant around 4,200 years ago .
“ Tonavigatethey probably used the celestial bodies , by lead sightings and angles of the Sun and star positions , ” he allege .
Two of the many Canaanite jars found onboard the sunken ship.Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority
The ship and itscargowere spotted during a quotidian seafloor view by a major natural flatulence geographic expedition and production company . After map the web site , the firm confirmed that the boat was between 12 and 14 meters ( 39 to 46 feet ) long and was debase with hundreds of Canaanite amphorae .
“ The vessel eccentric key in the payload was design as the most efficient mean value of enrapture relatively cheap and mass - produced products such as oil , wine and other farming product such as fruit , ” explained Sharvit . The presence of such a goodish booty hints at “ significant commercial ties ” between whichever state the ship came from and the ancient Levant , he sum up .
At this stage , lilliputian is hump about the watercraft ’s line or account , although Sharvit says that “ the ship seems to have subside in crisis , either due to a tempest or to an seek plagiarization blast – a well - known occurrence in the Late Bronze Age . ” Fortunately , the boat ’s resting place at thebottom of the thick bluehas protected it from waves , currents , and divers , all of which impact and scathe shipwreck in shallow waters .
As a result , the ship ’s dead body has remained well save for almost three - and - a - one-half millennia , with its wooden beam safely eat up in the deposit on the ocean floor .
“ There is frightful potential here for research , ” say Sharvit . “ The ship is preserved at such a great depth that time has frozen since the second of disaster . ”
