ULUBURUN – WRECKED LATE 14TH CENTURY BCE (1,300s BCE)
Over 3,300 years ago, off the coast of what’s now Turkey, disaster struck. A ship went down and goods worth around 350 million dollars in today’s money sank to the seabed.
Found by accident in 1982, the Uluburun wreck (named after its Cape Uluburun site) is one of the world’s oldest underwater shipwrecks.
Its 20 tons of cargo from 11 different ancient cultures took more than ten years and 22,500 dives to recover, making it one of the greatest archaeological discoveries to date – along with Tutankhamun’s tomb and Machu Picchu.
Studying the wreck and its cargo has rewritten history. Decades of work by archaeologists, historians and scientists transformed a Bronze-Age tragedy into a treasure trove of new knowledge.
Amphora being removed from the Uluburun wrecksite. Photo from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology