90 kilometers from the northern coast of Israel, a 3,300-year-old ship was found at a depth of 1,800 meters with all its cargo of amphorae intact. The discovery occurred by chance, when a submersible robot from the oil exploration company Energean searching for potential new sources off the coast of Israel spotted a mass of vessels and a 12-14 meter long wreck. The discovery of the ship, which sank during a storm or a pirate attack, was announced by experts from the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) to the BBC, explaining that it is in all likelihood the oldest wreck ever found in the deep waters of Mediterranean and is a precious testimony to the maritime skills of men who lived more than a thousand years before Christ. “This discovery is important for research – explained Jacob Sharvit, head of the IAA maritime unit – The ship is at such a depth that time has frozen since the moment of the disaster: the wreck and its cargo were not disturbed by human hands, nor influenced by waves and currents, which instead impact the wrecks in shallower waters”. Only two other cargo shipwrecks are known from the Late Bronze Age in the Mediterranean, but both were found relatively close to shore. This latest discovery, therefore, reveals that trade then took place not only by sailing from one port to another, but also in the open sea, without seeing the land. “The discovery – underlined Sharvit – demonstrates that our ancestors were able to cross the Mediterranean. From the point of the sinking, only the horizon is visible all around; to orient themselves they probably used celestial bodies, detecting the sighting and the ‘angle of the sun and the position of the stars’.
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