Miraculously Intact 2400 Y.O. Ship Found At The Bottom Of The Black Sea

‘Old’ is a relative term. When I bought my 1987 VL Commodore in 2007, that car was old. Iggy Pop, born just two years after the end of World War II and yet still somehow able to vigorously dance his way through an entire set, is old. Jeanne Calment, who was born in a small city southern France in 1875 and died there — 122 years later — in 1997 was old as fuck. The bicycle, invented some time in the 19th century, is old. All of these things are like tiny babies compared to the shipwreck researchers found at the bottom of the Black Sea.

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As The Guardian is reporting, archaeologists believe the shipwreck to be over 2400 years old, which would make it the oldest intact wreck ever found. The wreck was found by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project, which has been using sonar and remote-operated vehicles to explore the bottom of (you guessed it) the Black Sea. The Black Sea is a great environment for archaeological finds due to the lack of oxygen in the lowers level of the sea, which slows the deterioration of shipwrecks and other historical sites.

The ship was measured at 23-metres long and is believed to be from ancient Greece (which makes sense because, at 2400 years old, it is unlikely to be from modern Greece). Black Sea MAP head investigator Professor Jon Adams was stoked as about the find:

A ship surviving intact from the classical world, lying in over 2km of water, is something I would never have believed possible. This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world.

The project’s Dr Kroum Batchvarov told Sky that the vessel was intact to the point that the rudders were still in place and the masts were still standing, which is absolutely wild.

For now, the vessel will remain where it is on the seafloor near Bulgaria, bar a small piece that was removed for the purposes of carbon dating. The ship was one of 72 found by the project, which covered a time span that included 17th-century Cossack vessels to ancient Roman ships. How dope is history?

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