CyprusVista

Scuba diving in Cyprus is always a fascinating experience, especially since you never know what you might find! In 1967, a sponge diver found remains of an old wreck on the seabed just outside Kyrenia harbour, in what is now North Cyprus.

Archaeologists soon established the wreck as the best preserved classical-age Greek cargo ship ever discovered, dating from around 300BC. During the summers of 1968 and 1969, the wreck was lifted from the seabed and placed in a special museum in Kyrenia castle. The Kyrenia Shipwreck Museum now houses both the preserved wreck itself, plus the wreck’s cargo of large pottery wine jars (amphorae) from Rhodes and Samos, 29 millstones from Kos, and over 9000 preserved almonds!

Now, against all the odds, a team of archaeologists in south Cyprus have discovered the preserved wreck of another trading ship, located 45 metres down off the coast at Mazotos, near Larnaca. The exact location has been kept secret to preserve the security of the site, but the details of the finds are strikingly similar to the Kyrenia wreck.

The archaeologists have discovered the ships’ cargo comprised of around 500 amphorae, probably from the Greek island of Chios. Chios was famous in the ancient classical world for its excellent quality red wine, which is probably what these amphorae originally contained. The scientists cannot exactly say where the ship had visited prior to being wrecked off Cyprus, but suspect that Chios was just one destination in a trading voyage around several Aegean islands.

Unlike the Kyrenia wreck, where the finds included personal items as used by its four man crew, the Mazotos site has not yielded any objects apart from the Chios wine jars. However, the ship itself is well preserved, and historians are confident it will yield more information about both the trade patterns of this age and ship construction techniques.

Popularity: 20% [?]