Underwater archaeologists have managed to identify 18 shipwrecks on a coastline of 100 kilometres at Turkey’s southern province of Mersin. The shipwrecks area said to date back to between 1000 and 2700 years.

A team of 30 underwater archaeologists has been carrying out surveys of the coast of the Mersin province in 2017 with us of modern sonar tools and three types of underwater robots. They discovered 18 ancient shipwrecks on a coast of 100 meters in Mersin’s Aydıncık, Gülnar and Silifke districts. One of the ships was carrying plates and 16 ships were carrying amphorae. The other wreckage was probably a war ship or was returning to the harbour after unloading its cargo. The amphorae reveal international trade. Almost half of the amphorae were produced in the amphora ateliers in the east of Antalya and on the Mersin coastline. The researchers estimate they contained wine or olive oil, and it is believed that  these products reflect the agriculture and trade that developed in the region especially after the second century AD. Archaeologists believe that the wreckages are from the Classical, Roman and Byzantine era. Among the finds are 24 stone anchors, remains of 11 anchors from the Iron Age and 17 anchors from the Roman and Byzantine eras. According to the researchers the abundance of stone anchors from the Bronze Age reveals that maritime was common and comprehensive on the coasts of Mersin between 3000-3500 years ago.

(after Hurriyet Daily News)