Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

12 shipwrecks uncovered in the east Med dating from 300 BC
Daily Mail Online ^ | Tuesday, April 21, 2020 | Jonathan Chadwick

Posted on 04/21/2020 12:55:10 PM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientnavigation; godsgravesglyphs; navigation; romanempire; shipwreck; shipwrecks
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 last
294 topics from the "shipwreck" keyword, chrono sorted, probably some overlap with the earlier list, but that one will only reach back to 2014 and a specific line length:

41 posted on 04/21/2020 3:12:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
Ming porcelain is supposed to be quite valuable.
The dishes and plates in the photo looks like
a small fortune. (If it's really from Ming era China
or earlier.)
42 posted on 04/21/2020 3:18:12 PM PDT by StormEye
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: yarddog

You’re right. They dug canals to connect the Red Sea with the Nile River. The ancient canal turned west where the modern one goes north. Eventually, it silted up and goods arriving from the Red Sea had to be portaged to the Nile or the Mediterranean.


43 posted on 04/21/2020 3:28:25 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Jewbacca

Maybe it was opium.


44 posted on 04/21/2020 3:31:30 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: BradyLS

I have read, many years ago, that there was either an early version of the Suez Canal or a port which allowed ships to access the Nile in Egypt.


45 posted on 04/21/2020 3:33:33 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

I swear I eat off of pottery that looks like that every day.


46 posted on 04/21/2020 3:49:34 PM PDT by wildbill (The older I get, the less 'life in prison" means to me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Ouchthatonehurt

I remember reading of a 1800s sunk Clipper Ship find in which the porcelain, salvaged in the 1980s, went for HIGH DOLLAR!


47 posted on 04/21/2020 3:53:52 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: yarddog

Captain Nemo and his NAUTALIS found an underwater-underground tunnel from the Suez to the Med.


48 posted on 04/21/2020 3:57:30 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: CJ Wolf

“The Chinese by the 1600s were making a lot of those for import. They had different marks and some were knockoffs.”

So they’ve been ripping the West off for at least 500 years.

Figures.

L


49 posted on 04/21/2020 3:57:55 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Lurker

I think there was some kinda plague around that time exported to Europe as well.


50 posted on 04/21/2020 4:39:25 PM PDT by CJ Wolf ( #wwg1wga #gin&tonic #godwins)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]


51 posted on 04/21/2020 6:02:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

I am thinking insurance fraud....


52 posted on 04/22/2020 9:49:37 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson