The Uluburun Shipwreck and Late Bronze Age Maritime Trade

Prof. Dr. Cemal Pulak (Texas A&M University / Inst. of Nautical Archaeology, Bodrum)

Excavation of the late 14th-century B.C.E. shipwreck off Uluburun on Turkey’s southern coast revealed one of the largest, richest, and most diverse Bronze Age trade goods ever discovered in the Mediterranean. The ship’s main cargo consisted of ten tons of copper ingots and one ton of tin ingots, but also included jars filled with aromatic resin, discoid glass ingots, elephant and hippopotamus tusks, ebony logs, ostrich eggshells, Cypriot export ceramics, and glass and faience beads. Much of the ship’s cargo originated from Cyprus and nearby regions of the Levant, but some were also acquired from distant lands in equatorial Africa and Central Asia. Faience cups in shape of ram’s heads, ivory offering vessels, a gold-clad bronze cult statuette, and some musical instruments were probably used during rituals on board, while galley wares, fishing implements, tools, and foodstuffs were for shipboard use. Most of the gold and silver jewelry, cylinder seals, weapons, and balance weights represented personal effects of the ship’s Canaanite merchants and crew. A pair of swords, spears, seals, some tools, and pottery drinking sets, on the other hand, indicated the presence of two high-ranking Mycenaean officials on board, who were likely escorting the ship to their homeland. The ship set sail from a Canaanite port located on the central Levantine coast and was headed to a major Mycenaean port in the Aegean when it sank. The ship’s reconstructed route provides evidence for a Late Bronze Age maritime trade network that encircled the eastern Mediterranean in a counterclockwise direction that was assisted by the prevailing winds and currents.