The Hellenistic Shipwreck at Serçe Limanı, Turkey

Preliminary Report

Bibliographic Data

ID4542258
AuthorsCemal Pulak (0000-0002-7874-2261), Rhys F Townsend, Carolyn G Koehler, Malcolm B Wallace
Year1987
Volume91
Issue1
Pages31-57
Publication date1987-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/505456
OpenAlexW2331356143
LanguageEN
Citations received17

A shipwreck of the Hellenistic period, looted of almost all visible remains, was discovered by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in 1973 at Serçe Limam on Turkey's southwest coast. Partial excavation of the site by the Institute, between 1978 and 1980, revealed hundreds of amphoras, in two rather uniform sizes, still beneath the sand. Grape seeds and resinous linings in many of them indicate a cargo of wine; a secondary cargo may have been carried in more than two dozen small, bulbous pots. The amphoras and their stamps suggest that the ship sank ca. 280–275 B.C., providing a date for presumably contemporaneous glazed and plain wares found in the only area of the site excavated to the level of the ship's lead-sheathed hull. Other finds include millstones, marble and lead rings, a wooden toggle, and a length of lead pipe that may provide the earliest evidence for bilge pumps. The excavation was not continued after it was discovered that the wreck runs under a rockslide of massive boulders that might endanger the site if moved

Ancient history · Archaeology · Dozen · Excavation · Geography · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Geology · History · Law, logistics, and international trade · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

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