Classical shipwreck excavation at Tektaş Burnu, Turkey

Abstract

In 1999 the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) began the excavation of a 5th-century BC shipwreck off Tektaş Burnu, a rocky headland on the west coast of Turkey between the Greek islands of Chios and Samos. The site was discovered in 1996 during INA’s annual survey, which has pinpointed more than 100 ancient wrecks off southwest Turkey. Since 1960 teams under Gcorge Bass have excavated wrecks ranging in date from Bronze Age to medieval, but the high classical period of Greece remained unrepresented. Interest in the Tektas wreck was spurred by its likely date, in the third quarter of the 5th century BC; it is the only wrecked merchantman to be securely dated to these years, and is therefore shedding unique light on seafaring and trade at the height of classical Athens.