Hugged the coast my ass -- buncha modern landlubbers.In an Ancient Wreck, Clues to Seafaring LivesIn Homer's epics, mariners tell of sailing far and wide across the Mediterranean, of braving fierce storms, of traveling for days on end with no land in sight. But modern scholars had doubts. Distrust about the actual routes grew with the discovery of numerous old wrecks in shallow waters. In time, the ancient sailors were viewed as hugging the coasts, mostly keeping in sight of land. The heroic tales were probably fabulous, many scholars argued, and the mariners more timid than their boasts. Now, the discovery of an ancient wreck in the middle of the Mediterranean is strengthening the old claims. The wreck site, some 200 miles from Cyprus and nearly two miles deep, has been tentatively dated as 2,300 years old; it lies amid a graveyard of similar hulks. Clearly Greek in origin, it is the deepest ancient ship ever discovered... The discovery team believes that the ship was a Hellenistic trader sailing between Rhodes and Alexandria, and that the clay jars were carrying wine. "This was a supertanker of the ancient world," said Brett A. Phaneuf of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology of Texas A&M University, who is helping analyze the find.
by William J. Broad
March 27, 2001
from NYTimes