3981) Did You Know Series (104): 1) Locating the Kyrenia a longboat which sank between 286 BC and 272 BC with assorted cargo on board: 2) Dating the sinking of the Kyrenia "Discovery of ‘fundamental importance to the history of naval technology’; 3) The Kyrenia and its history:4) Why do we know they were humble crewmen?: 5) Why is it so important now?; 6) Some interesting facts about the Kyrenia:

3981) Did You Know Series (104): 1) Locating the Kyrenia a longboat which sank between 286 BC and 272 BC with assorted cargo on board:  2)  Dating the sinking of the Kyrenia "Discovery of ‘fundamental importance to the history of naval technology’; 3) The Kyrenia and its history:4) Why do we know they were humble crewmen?: 5) Why is it so important now?; 6) Some interesting facts about the Kyrenia:

In 1965, diving instructor Andreas Cariolu was out in the Cypriot Sea searching for sponges when he came across a shipwreck that scientists went on to call one of the most important finds in modern history. 

As well as discovering the 14-metre long boat, known as the Kyrenia, over 300 amphorae, a type of ancient storage container, were also found on the seabed. Subsequent excavations between 1968 and 1969 recovered a total of 391 amphorae that contained products such as wine, olive oil , and almonds. 

For years, it was believed that the Kyrenia’s last voyage happened around 300 BC, based on the contents of its amphorae. However, a new study focused more on other objects found on the ship, such as fragments of wood, a small twig, and animal bones.

Since the find, scientists have worked hard to date both the amphorae and the ship, and new techniques may well have solved the problem. 

Evidence had suggested that the ship’s last voyage took place around 300 BC. 

However, this is now disputed thanks to new evidence: in a new paper, Cornell University, after using radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, claim it was much later. 

Their analysis suggests the ship’s timbers came from trees that grew in the later part of the fourth century B.C.E. The trees were likely cut down after approximately 355 to 291 B.C.E.

They also studied some of the fresh green almonds that went down with the ship, as well as a piece of bone from either a sheep or a goat. Using statistical modeling, they were able to determine that the ship probably sank between 286 and 272 B.C.E.

Along the way, they also found and corrected a discrepancy in the scientific standard researchers use when analyzing old wood, so their paper has broader implications for the study of other ancient shipwrecks.

Whenever we have studied History, we have always read about great empires, epic wars, and very powerful kings, don’t you?. And even more so if we focus, for example, on great civilizations like Greece, Rome, or Egypt. But we have never thought about all the history that remains hidden under the waters or about how common people lived (not nobility or the like).

 2 Dating the sinking of the Kyrenia "Discovery of ‘fundamental importance to the history of naval technology’:

“We are excited to apply scientific techniques to date the famous Kyrenia ship to just over 2,300 years ago. It is of fundamental importance to the history of naval technology and maritime trade in the classical Mediterranean," said lead author Sturt Manning, professor of arts and sciences in classical archaeology at Cornell University in New York. 

The research team, instead of dating the ship through the contents of the amphorae, used wood samples, a twig, and animal bone to determine the true age. 

They found that Kyrenia’s sinking took place between 296 BC and 271 BC, with a more precise estimate narrowing it to between 286 BC and 272 BC. 

Mark Lawall, a professor in the department of classics at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, told CNN that “the other part of the Kyrenia story is its window into past lives that are otherwise difficult to ‘see’ through the well-known ancient writers. The Kyrenia crew may have been a band of more marginal traders, taking up what they could, where and when they could, and hoping for a small profit at the end of the day.”Whenever we have studied History, we have always read about great empires, epic wars, and very powerful kings. And even more so if we focus, for example, on great civilizations like Greece, Rome, or Egypt, we have never thought about all the history that remains hidden under the waters or about how common people lived (not nobility or the like)."

This latest discovery sheds a bit of light on that, on 2,300 years of history that were submerged beneath the mantle of the Mediterranean…   

3) The Kyrenia and its history:

In this way, and thanks to the combined use of radiocarbon and dendrochronology (two techniques widely used in archaeology to date found objects), scientists concluded that the shipwreck occurred a bit later, estimating between the years 286 and 272 BC.  

Another professor from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg stated that this vessel is not just another discovery, but it offers us a window into the lives of the past, into how these kinds of traders operated, who were likely humble crewmen sailing outside the official routes, something like smugglers of the time hoping to find some profit at the end of the journey. 

4) Why do we know they were humble crewmen?

The answer, although not entirely clear because we don’t know who travelled on that ship 2,300 years ago, makes a lot of sense. 

In this vessel they didn’t find gold or valuable vases, only everyday products that were surely going to be used for trade in other places. 

Although, the hypothesis also exists that in the following years, the more valuable objects were looted, you know, like what happens with pyramids. But since that’s not clear either, it’s much easier and more logical to think that they were simple traders carrying their products to sell them in another land. 

5) Why is it so important now?

The Kyrenia, a ship barely 14 meters long, represents evidence of the multiculturalism of the ancient Mediterranean and of how certain economic exchanges created connections between the populations that inhabited the Mediterranean back then. 

A Greek ship that has endured more than 2,300 years under the sea now appears to remind us that daily life is also about accidents and common people, and that history doesn’t always have to be about palaces and kings.

6) Some interesing facts about the Kyrenia:

- After it was raised from the seabed, it found a new home at the Ancient Shipwreck Museum in Kyrenia Castle, where it remains on exhibit.

- The ship sailed in the Mediterranean during the lifetime of Alexander the Great and his successors. It sank in open water off the ancient harbour of Kyrenia some time after 294 BC, when it was rather old. 

- The ship was in use by merchants for more than 20 years. Archaeologists studied the ship's remains in detail and found much new information about ancient construction techniques, the re-use of materials in antiquity, and evidence of extensive repairs and modifications during Kyrenia's working life. Planking was replaced and repaired in the bow. 

A break in the ship's keel had been mended, and the outside of the ship was protected with wooden and lead sheathing to keep the aging timbers water-tight and extend the ship's working life. 

- Closer analysis of the rabbets in the hull's frame suggest that the mast step had been moved up to three, and possibly four times. This movement happens to be in close proximity with a space to collect bilge water.Because of this, archaeologists surmise that the movement of the mast step was to make way for a larger bilge sump, capable of lifting water out and overboard.

- These extreme measures to deal with water infiltration corroborate the frailty of the ship and may have contributed to its sinking. The hull's excellent preservation, along with its extensive repairs, demonstrate its long sailing life and adds greatly to our knowledge of shipbuilding in antiquity. 

                              The Greek Ship Kyrenia's Treasures.

The ship Kyrenia (model), Thessaloniki Science Center and Technology Museum

- The objects in Kyrenia Castle are the original ones that it carried during its last voyage about 2,300 years ago. From them, we learned about the life of the captain and three sailors who manned the ship. 

- The ship carried 381 amphoras or transport jars containing a cargo of wine, olive oil, and almonds--most amphoras aboard the Kyrenia Ship came from Rhodes (x340), with some from Knidos (x4), Samos (x1), Kos (x2), Palestine (x1), Egypt (Phoenician style, x1), Cyprus (x1) and possibly Kourion (x1). 

- Some of the amphora stamps suggest that the ship sank between 294 and 291 BC, which is also supported by the seven bronze coins found on the shipwreck site. 

- Five of these coins were minted in the name of Alexander the Great and date between ca. 334 BC and 301 BC. 

- One coin is of unknown mint, and the other is a well-known type of Ptolemy I, produced only on Cyprus. This coin dates to post 294 BC. 

- The ship's trade route included Rhodes, Cyprus, and the Levant, with Egypt as its possible final destination. 

- In addition a cargo of wine, oil, and almonds (over 9,000 in number), the Kyrenia Ship carried millstones and iron billets. Twenty-nine millstones, laden in three rows over the keel as cargo also served as ballast. At the stone quarry, probably on the island of Kos, masons carved letters of identification on their sides. 

- The sailors fished during the voyage and this is revealed by more than 300 lead net weights found in the bow. 

- Meals were probably prepared ashore, using large casserole pots and a bronze cauldron. Aboard the ship were also four drinking cups (kantharoi), four oil containers (gutti), four wine measures (olpai), as well as bowls and saucers, and wooden spoons. This cabin pottery from the Kyrenia shipwreck suggests that the ship was sailed by a crew of four. The cabin pottery also indicates that the vessel's homeport was Rhodes, a conclusion further supported by the scientific analyses undertaken on these ceramics.

Archaeologists also found javelins on the shipwreck site, which were most likely used for the protection of the crew during the ship's last voyage. 

- Kyrenia may have had an earlier life with a Levantine crew, however. In the ship's bilges eight small pieces of pottery were found which include a fragment of a common type of Levantine jar, as well as seven fragments came from four to five drinking cups, known as Achaemenid cups, typical of the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Examples of these type of jars and drinking cups have been found along the modern-day Israeli coast. 

- The ship carried a single square sail and more than 100 lead rigging rings from its so-called brail sail were found on the shipwreck site. The wooden hull, built mostly of pine (Pinus brutia), was preserved for a length of almost 14.7 by 4.4 metres (48 by 14 ft) across. 

- The ship was built using the "shell first" ancient method, the opposite of today's method. Contrary to the contemporary wood boat building method where a complete skeleton of frames of the entire vessel must first be constructed, in this case, the planking from the keel and up was joined first, using a mortise-and-tenon construction, and then the frames were laid in, secured with an ingenious assembly of wood pegs pierced by copper nails passing through both frames and planks.

- The ship was intended for long service and underwent four major repairs in her life. In the last repair, a skin of lead sheathing of 1.5 to 2 millimetres (0.059 to 0.079 in) thickness was applied to her body to hopefully keep the old ship comparatively safe from woodworm and probably help water tightness. 

- Preservation and conservation of the ship's artefacts and wooden hull was undertaken in 1970 and 1971, and from 1971 to 1973 the original timbers were reassembled on permanent scaffolding, still on exhibit today, along with its cargoes and goods of crew in Kyrenia Castle. 

At the time of its sinking, Kyrenia carried only one anchor. The anchor remains found on the wreck show the remains come from single one-armed wooden hook anchor with a lead-filled wooden stock. The original anchor had a central wooden shaft called the shank, made from a crooked grown oak timber, which terminated in a hook or arm. This arm was set perpendicular to lead-filled stock—this configuration ensured that it would fall down and dig itself into the seabed. Only the heavy lead inserts of the stock, which provided the necessary weight to sink the anchor, the iron concretion of the anchor's fluke tip, and small wood fragments were found on Kyrenia. 

This anchor type relied solely on its ability to grip the seabed. The earliest mention of a hook anchor is from a Greek poem by Alcaeus dating to the mid-seventh century BC. The Greeks attributed the invention of the hook anchor to several semi-legendary figures, including King Midas of Phrygia, but the real inventor is unknown.