Several early shipwrecks have become famous in recent years. For instance, the Uluburun shipwreck, an Ugaritic vessel dating to the 12th century BCE, and the Salcombe shipwreck, which sunk to the bottom of the Channel seafloor around the 9th century BCE. Being from such a prehistoric period, most or all of their hulls have since rotted away, but their precious cargo has informed much about mobility, technology and prestige economics in the Bronze Age. The wreck at Salcombe held ingots and anchor weights originally extracted from Sicily, Sardinia or northern Spain, crossing thousands of miles over sea and land to end up alongside the British coastline, while Uluburun and its earlier cousin, the Cape Gelidonya Shipwreck, was carrying luxury goods from Egypt, Mesopotamia and all corners of the eastern Mediterranean.
However, the title of the earliest shipwreck, and thus the earliest direct evidence for sailing (although earlier boats have been found, such as the Old Kingdom Khufu ship, it's impossible to tell if they were put to sea or not), belongs to an underreported discovery 60 kilometres off the coast of the island of Dokos, Greece, uncovered from its murky 30-metre-depths by Greek archaeologists in 1975. The Dokos Shipwreck, from the basis of pottery sherds alone, is far older than any other of its kind, dating to the Early Helladic, which in western Europe and elsewhere constitutes the tail end of the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age, about 2700 - 2150 BCE. About the only other Neolithic 'ship' known to archaeology is the dugout canoe found at the bottom of Lake Bracciano, Italy, roughly 9,000 years old.
The find is exceptional in that no other remains of proto-Helladic seafaring, or indeed any seafaring outside of Egypt and the southern Levant in the period, exists. Unlike the later shipwrecks only its context in the open sea classifies it as a shipwreck, and so nothing can be gleaned regarding its construction or its performance. A few fragments of wood were recovered by an archaeological team in 2002, and from the scraps which features basic perforated holes and plates, they presumably were part of the hull. All that remains of the Dokos Ship are hundreds of clay vases, a number of rudimentary stone anchors, several millstones and a cluster of lead ingots used for the copper smelting process. The ceramics themselves are everyday items, probably intended for transport to Dokos or a nearby island, but their styles are reflective of a thriving pan-Aegean trade economy. For example, some of the 'saucer-boats' are identical to those found on the mainland settlement of Askitario, an Early Helladic site situated on a rocky outcrop beside a naturist hotspot, and there are also marked similarities with saucer-boats from the Cyclades and Lerna, the area around Argos.
Why did it sink? The relatively shallow depths of the sea it was traversing argue against a colossal wave engulfing the vessel, but it could have sunk from a leak on a critical part of the hull, tilting the heavy cargo far too much to one side. There is the possibility, given the number of vessels, that multiple ships sunk there; maybe there was a hidden whirlpool or combination of tide and wind there that was particularly treacherous. The fact that the anchors were found 40m from the other finds might support this interpretation.
An idea of the design of the vessel itself, and its proportions, can be gained from the decorated seals of Minoan Crete, first produced about 1800 BCE or so. Ship technology, at least for close-distance trade vessels, presumably did not undergo a revolution between the two time periods, so it may be a good basis for reconstructing the Dokos Ship. There are several Minoan shipwrecks dating later than this currently known, including the Pseira shipwreck, which like the Dokos Ship was a merchant vessel carrying ceramics.
The pile of ceramic vessels and amphorae found 60 kilometers from Dokos, Greece. Image credit. Hellenic Institute of Marine Archaeology (HIMA)
As for Dokos itself, the small island, known as Aperopia by the Greeks, was occupied from the very early Neolithic, and possibly ephemerally visited eons earlier by early Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis. Its location between the Greek mainland and the larger island landmass of Hydra would have made it a key stopping point, not only for local merchants but for traders looking to import objects from Crete or even further afield; the last stop in a long line of exchange.
Although the shipwreck obviously has archaeological importance in the prehistory of Greece, and how far it was determined by naval trade and communication, it serves as an ideal model for other Neolithic / Early Bronze Age areas with strong ties to the sea. There may well be a late Neolithic shipwreck buried under the sands of the Channel, or in the bay of Biscay, recognisable only by a suspicious scatter of Beaker pottery and gold ornaments.
References:
Anastasi, P. (1989) "Aegean Sea Floor Yields Clues to Early Greek Traders." The New York Times
Podcast link: https://uh.edu/engines/epi367.htm
Comments
Post a Comment