(Jerusalem) The wreck of a more than 3,000-year-old ship with its cargo was discovered off Israel’s northern coast, the country’s antiquities authority announced Thursday.
The wreck was discovered in the Mediterranean, more than 1,500 meters deep, by London-registered energy company Energean, which operates off the coast of Israel.
A study by the company revealed that the ship’s cargo consisted of hundreds of amphorae used for storing products like wine and olive oil during the Bronze Age.
“The ship appears to have sunk in distress, either due to a storm or a pirate attack, a well-known phenomenon in the late Bronze Age,” said Jacob Sharvit, the head of the maritime unit of the antiquities authority, in a press release.
The wreck was discovered last year 90 kilometers off the coast of northern Israel and authorities estimated it dates back to the 14th or 13th century BCE.
More than three millennia old, the wreck dates from a time when maritime trade was beginning to prosper.
The Energean team found a significant number of jugs while surveying the sea floor, said Karnit Bahartan, the company’s environmental manager.
“When we sent them [the Antiquities Authority] the images, it turned out to be a sensational find, way beyond what we could have imagined,” he said.
Mr Sharvit said the location of the discovery, offshore, showed that ancient sailors were able to navigate the sea without having the coast in sight, probably with the help of the position of the stars and the sun.
“This is a historic discovery of global proportions,” he said.
Some of the objects discovered will soon be presented to the public, the authority said.
