Turkey Shipwreck May Predate Oldest Known Wreck by 300 Years at 2700-2400 BCE

Q: Did Bronze Age sailors really keep live goats aboard to churn cheese while navigating the Mediterranean 4,500 years ago?

No firm evidence shows Bronze Age sailors definitely kept live goats aboard to make cheese at sea, but archaeologists say it is a plausible hypothesis raised by one unusual jar from the newly identified shipwreck off Turkey. The idea comes from a single amphora recovered near Kekova Island, dated with the wreck to roughly 4,400 to 4,700 years ago. Researchers say the vessel has two holes and nine markings and may have functioned as a churn amphora, potentially for making butter or cheese. If that interpretation is right, sailors could have carried goats on longer voyages, milked them and processed dairy on board. But the evidence remains indirect. The ship’s wooden hull did not survive, and no goat bones, tethering gear or other clear signs of livestock aboard have been reported. Specialists are also still analyzing residues inside the amphorae, and some experts caution that large jars were often reused over time, meaning any residue or unusual features may not reflect the ship’s final voyage. What the wreck clearly shows is Early Bronze Age maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean. More than 30 amphorae and three stone anchors point to a small merchant vessel likely carrying goods such as olive oil or wine from the Levant westward. The “goats on board” scenario is therefore an informed but unproven reconstruction of daily life, not an established fact. So the careful answer is: maybe, but archaeologists do not yet have proof.

3 articles · Updated · The Conversation · Oct 14

A wreck off Kekova on Turkey’s southern coast has been tentatively dated to 2700-2400 BCE, which would make it about 4,500 years old and the world’s oldest known shipwreck.
Pottery cargo drove the dating: archaeologists matched the shape and manufacture of amphorae and other jars, while visible residues may later reveal what the ship carried.
The vessel appears to have been a coastal trader that sought shelter in a storm and smashed into rocks; divers spent four months freeing cargo from barnacle-covered slopes, with little of the hull surviving.
The find could push back evidence of organized Mediterranean seaborne trade beyond the 4,200-year-old Dokos wreck and link routes between the Levant, southern Turkey and Egypt’s Early Bronze Age economy.
Researchers stress the chronology remains provisional, with peer-reviewed publication and scientific residue analysis still pending.