The world's oldest deep-sea shipwreck has just been discovered
The world's oldest deep-sea shipwreck has been discovered 1.8km below the surface on the Mediterranean Sea floor.
The Bronze Age ship sank around 3,300 years ago yet lots of its cargo remained intact including jars.
The vessel was found around 90km off the northern coasts of Israel.
Until this discovery, Bronze Age shipwrecks had been discovered in shallow waters close to the shoreline, such as the world's oldest known sunken vessel just off the Greek island of Dokos.
But now Jacob Sharvit, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Marine Unit, said in a statement via email to IFL Science: "The discovery of this boat now changes our entire understanding of ancient mariner abilities. It is the very first to be found at such a great distance with no line of sight to any landmass."
Two Canaanite jars found onboard the ship / (Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority)
A natural gas exploration and production company was doing a routine floor survey when it came across the ship and its cargo.
It confirmed the boat was loaded with hundreds of Canaanite Amphorae (storage jars were widely used in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age to hold a range of natural products such as oil) and that it was between 12 and 14 metres long.
Sharvit said: "The vessel type identified in the cargo was designed as the most efficient means of transporting relatively cheap and mass-produced products such as oil, wine and other agricultural products such as fruit.
"The ship seems to have sunk in crisis, either due to a storm or to an attempted piracy attack - a well-known occurrence in the Late Bronze Age."
The Bronze Age started more than 5,000 years ago.
The shipwreck was found 1,800 metres beneath the surface / (Energean)
Sharvit said: "There is tremendous potential here for research.
"The ship is preserved at such a great depth that time has frozen since the moment of disaster."
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