World's oldest shipwreck surfaces off Turkey's Mediterranean coast

Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that underwater excavations off the island of Kekova in Antalya province had brought to light what may be the world's oldest shipwreck, a vessel dating back some 4,400 to 4,700 years. The news dominated international heritage coverage on 14–15 October 2026. Although the wooden hull has disintegrated, divers from the Antalya Museum Directorate recorded more than 30 ceramic storage jars and three stone anchors scattered across the seabed at a depth of around 30 metres. Clay analyses on nine of the amphorae, which once carried olive oil or wine, point to workshops in the Jordan Valley, suggesting the ship was travelling along an Early Bronze Age trade route linking the Levant to Anatolia. Nine mysterious potters' marks on the jars hint at an early inventory system. The find pushes the archaeological record of eastern Mediterranean seafaring back by centuries and will anchor a new research programme on Anatolian maritime history.