12 shipwrecks uncovered in the east Med dating from 300 BC

Daily Mail Online ^ | Tuesday, April 21, 2020 | Jonathan Chadwick

[SunkenCiv]

· British expedition uncovers a wealth of wonders dating from the year 300 BC in the eastern Mediterranean
· 12 shipwrecks and their cargoes include a colossal 17th century ship that fits 'two normal ships' on its deck
· The ships reveal a trade route from China to Persia, Red Sea and east Mediterranean for food and porcelain

Archaeologists have found shipwrecks in the Mediterranean filled with hundreds of artefacts including Chinese porcelain, jugs, coffee pots, peppercorns and illicit tobacco pipes.

A British-led expedition found a cluster of 12 ships on the sea bed, 1.2 miles below the surface of the Levantine Sea, using sophisticated robots.

The ships were recovered in ancient 'shipping lanes' that served spice and silk trades of the Greek, Roman and Ottoman empires, from 300 BC onwards.

The ancient ships -- including the biggest ever found in the Med -- were unearthed in a muddy part of the eastern seabed between Cyprus and Lebanon, where remnants are often hard to find.

'It doesn't get better than this,' Sean Kingsley, archaeologist at the Enigma Shipwreck Project (ESP) told BBC Radio 4.

'For an archaeologist it's the equivalent of finding a new planet.

'There's sort of an embarrassment of wonders here -- we've got the earliest Chinese Ming dynasty porcelain found under the Mediterranean Sea.

'They're quite hard to find but when you do find them they're incredibly well preserved.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Albion Wilde.

[Phinneous]

Can we call it BCE to trigger people?

[FewsOrange]

Another report from a couple o days ago

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/18/mediterranean-shipwrecks-reveal-birth-of-globalisation-in-trade

“The last phase of Enigma’s fieldwork was carried out at the end of 2015, with the post-excavation process continuing for years after and remaining unpublicised until now. “

Keeping it a secret for over 4 years, obviously none of the work in politics.

[Larry Lucido]

Enigmatic and Astonishing Tales of the Sea, B.C.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Darn Chinese globalists in 300 BC. Were they exporting deadly diseases back then, too?

The Justinian plague epidemic was first reported by the Byzantine historian Procopius in 541 A.D. from the ancient port of Pelusium, near Suez in Egypt. Historians had assumed it arrived there from the Red Sea or Africa, but in 2010 geneticists began positing it had a Chinese origin via the Silk Road and oceanic voyages.

It wouldn’t be surprising to find that Chinese diseases were propagated as soon as sea and overland trade began.

[Repeal The 17th]

“...illicit tobacco pipes...”
-
Who/what made them “illicit”?

[Jewbacca]

I prefer “AM”.

[Jewbacca]

Well, since I thought tobacco was from North America, I suspect it wasn’t tobacco. About 1700 years early.

[Boogieman]

“Tobacco” pipes in the Mediterranean in 300 BC?!?

Either those sailors were smoking something other than tobacco, or this reveals trade routes that go much further than China.

[Boogieman]

Maybe the fact that tobacco wasn’t supposed to exist outside of the Americas at that time?

[BradyLS]

Interesting story, but there’s a head-scratcher with the map they show talking about the colossal 17th century wreck. They map the article shows says the ship sailed from Jengdezhan in China to the Levantine Sea (Easter Med.), where it foundered, via...the Suez (Canal)?

The canal wasn’t built until the late 1800’s. Common knowledge!

I can see the route going to the Suez and then ships from China off-loaded so goods could travel overland to a port on the Mediterranean and then picked up again to sail to other ports on another ship—perhaps even the one they found. Otherwise, a ship would have sail all the way around Africa—which could happen but not if it would make goods prohibitively expensive.

[BradyLS]

My understanding is that the wrecks date from as early as 300BC to as late as the 17th Century (1600s) for the largest wreck.

[MrEdd]

Who is triggered by a bacon cheese and egg sandwich?

[BradyLS]

My salivary glands are definitely triggered.

[BradyLS]

I believe the wrecks represent a range of dates. The largest is stated as being from the 17th century (1600s). Tobacco had probably made its way to Europe from the Americas by then.

[SpaceBar]

Ancient car accidents.

[BenLurkin]

[SunkenCiv]

Turns out, people who get triggered are just people who are always looking around for triggers. Let's see what they find instead. :^)

[BenLurkin]