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The oldest entire shipwreck ever has been found resting on the bottom of the Black Sea .
Protected by the oxygen - free water at the seafloor , the ship has been sitting undisturbed since 400 B.C. , researchers from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project ( Black Sea MAP)announced Tuesday(Oct . 23 ) . It is a Greek vessel that looks like something themythical hero Odysseuscould have sailed — literally . harmonize to the investigator , a very similar vessel is paint on the side of theBritish Museum ’s " Siren Vase,“which depicts Odysseus chained to the mast of his ship as it sail past the sweet - voiced sirens .
This ancient Greek vessel, described as the world’s oldest intact shipwreck, was discovered at the bottom of the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria. It dates back to the year 400 B.C.
" A ship , pull through intact , from the Greco-Roman universe , lie in over 2 kilometers [ 1.2 miles ] of water , is something I would never have believed possible , " University of Southampton archaeologist Jon Adams , drawing card of the Black Sea MAP , said in the statement . " This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient macrocosm . "
Fascinating find
The ship was discovered in the evenfall of 2017 , on the third of three survey trips to the Black Sea . Led by Adams , Lyudmil Vagalinsky of the Bulgarian Academy of Science and Kalin Dimitrov of the Center of Underwater Archaeology in Bulgaria , the inquiry squad surveyed 770 square air mile ( 2,000 square kilometers ) of the seabed during all three seasons .
The investigating turn up more than 60 shipwrecks , including some previously report to dateback to the Ottoman and Byzantine empire . The Black Sea has only a narrow connection to the Mediterranean Sea , so it drains poorly . And the Black Sea is give by fresh water from the circumvent land , which floats on top of the piquant weewee nearer to the bottom . This piquant layer is extremely humbled in oxygen , which celebrate Ellen Price Wood - eating germ off from shipwrecks on the seafloor . For that reason , even centuries - previous ship look as if they go down yesterday . [ Gallery : shipwreck of the Black Sea ]
The Greek vas sits about 1.2 mile ( 2 km ) inscrutable . The research worker used carbon 14 go steady to show that the shipwreck dates back more than 2,400 years . The ship rests on its side , its mast and prow understandably seeable and unbroken .
Rising waters
The main goal of the Black Sea MAP is to understand changes that have take place since the last glass age , when the sea was much down . Because the area has been a hub of civilization , the shipwreck at the bottom form time capsule , revealing who used the ocean for Department of Commerce and how they build their vessels .
The researchers have also unearth a settlement on the Bulgarian side of the sea near the Ropotamo River . The site tells a fib of the Black Sea as melt down glaciers raised sea levels and forced humans to conform . In the lowest layers of the mining , about 8.2 feet ( 2.5 meters ) below the current seafloor , are timbers and hearth fragment from a Bronze Age settlement , the researchers antecedently cover . But by the Byzantine era ( A.D. 330 -1453 ) , the site was inundated , and ceramic revealed that people used the berth as a safe haven . By the Ottoman era ( A.D. 1299 - 1920 ) , the stain was a deeper anchorage for trading vessels .
to begin with published onLive Science .
