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The wreck has been described by experts as the world’s “oldest intact shipwreck” (Black Sea MAP/EEF Expeditions).
Researchers have discovered what they say is the world’s oldest intact shipwreck at the bottom of the Black Sea.
The Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project says it found the wreck of the Greek trading vessel off the coast of Bulgaria at a depth of 1.2 miles. Experts have spent three years surveying over 772 square miles of the Black Sea in a search for shipwrecks.
SCIENTISTS DISCOVER 60 ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS IN THE BLACK SEA
Oxygen-free conditions in the water have preserved the ship, which the group says has been carbon dated to more than 2,400 years ago. “The Black Sea is considered to be one of the world’s finest underwater laboratories due to the anoxic (un-oxygenated) layer which preserves artifacts better than any other marine environment,” explains the Project, on its website.
File photo – Stamnos (vase) depicting Odysseus tied to the mast listening to the songs of the Sirens, Greece. Ancient Greek. c 480 BC. Athens. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
The vessel’s design had previously been seen only on ancient pottery.
SHIPWRECK GRAVEYARD: MYSTERIOUS FLEET OF 40 ANCIENT SHIPS FOUND IN ‘DEAD ZONE’ UNDER THE BLACK SEA
The ambitious project, which includes maritime archaeologists, scientists and surveyors, aims to unlock the mysteries of the Black Sea.
Experts have used technology previously available largely to oil companies in their research. It has discovered over 60 shipwrecks, including a 17th-century Cossack raiding fleet and Roman trading vessels carrying amphorae.
A documentary on the project has opened at the British Museum in London on Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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