Kyrenia, late 4th century BC
Country: Cyprus
Place: Off Kyrenia (northern Cyprus), at a depth of 30 m
Coordinates (approximate): 35.35, 33.33
Type: Greek coastal merchant ship
Identified: No
Dated: Last years of the 4th century BC, based on the amphorae and a coin of Demetrios Poliorketes.
Beam: 4 m (Steffy 1994: 48).
Keel Length: 9.33 m.
Length Overall: 14.5 m (Steffy 1994: 48).
Number of Masts: One, stepped well forward, with a square sail.
History of the wreck
The Kyrenia wreck was excavated in 1968–69 by a team from the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of M. L. Katzev. The ship was a coaster with a cabin for the crew at the stern, where cooking utensils and tableware (for four sailors) were found. In the bow, where there would have been a store, fishing nets were found, which points to a varied function for this vessel, which had to obtain food en route. More than a hundred lead rings were recorded, interpreted as the fairleads for the brails of the sail, well known from Roman nautical iconography, which would confirm that it had a square sail. The presence of traces of fire and of arrowheads embedded in the hull led M. L. Katzev to conclude that the ship had suffered a pirate attack (Katzev and Katzev 1974: 622).
Description of the site
The wreck lies at a depth of 30 m off Kyrenia, on the island of Cyprus. About 60% of the ship’s hull was preserved (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Plan of the Kyrenia wreck (after Steffy 1994: 44).
Cargo
The ship carried a cargo of 404 amphorae characteristic of the end of the 4th century BC.1 They were stowed over 29 grain mills arranged in order over the hull, and some ten thousand almonds, carried in sacks, were found scattered all over the site (Gianfrotta and Pomey 1981).
Ballast
Not reported.
Anchors
Not reported.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not reported. The frames were fastened with copper nails.
Hull Remains
About 60% of the hull was preserved (Figure 1). In total there are estimated to be some 4,000 mortise-and-tenon joints, with mortises of 4.3 × 8 × 0.6 cm and an average spacing of 11.7 cm, in the hull of a small coastal vessel (Figure 2) 14.5 m long and 4 m in beam, with a burden of 20 t (Steffy 1994: 48; Pomey et al. 1997: 169). The tenons (15 to 20 cm long) can therefore be considered more than simple joints: they form an “invisible” framework reinforcing the structure of the hull both transversely and longitudinally.
The ship had undergone maintenance and repairs (Figure 9): one frame had been replaced and others reinforced by doubling, and several planking strakes had been replaced, which can be detected from the tenons with one end finished in a wedge shape so that they could be inserted from the outside of the hull. The mast step was repositioned, which may be related to the balance of the ship under way or to the reuse of a mast step that was not the original one; a crack in the keel was repaired; and a cover was fitted at the bottom of the bilge (Roman 1997: 56–58).
Figure 2. Reconstruction of the lines of the Kyrenia, by J. R. Steffy (after Pomey et al. 1997).
Keel, keelson and mast step
The keel (Pinus halepensis) was 9.33 m long, 12 cm wide at its upper face and 10 cm at its lower face, and had a protective false keel or shoe (Quercus cerris L.) 8.43 m long and 3.8 to 4.8 cm thick, fastened to the keel by wooden treenails 1.2 to 1.3 cm in diameter. Of the stem, 2.46 m were preserved, joined to the backbone by a trait de Jupiter (rayo de Júpiter) scarf locked by two lateral wedges; only 63 cm of the sternpost survived (Figure 3).
The keel had a rabbet (Figure 4), unlike all earlier ship constructions, in which the pinched (wine-glass-shaped) bottom of the hull was achieved by giving the garboard strake an angular bevel. The rabbet, of the back-rabbet type (with a shoulder or seat), notched, with a depth of 11.8 mm on the starboard side and 11.7 mm on the port side (Roman 1997: 56), had 78 mortises2 every 12 cm, 15 to 20 cm deep, for the joint with the garboard strakes, 3.6 cm thick (3.5 cm in the second strake).
The mast step was also preserved, in a position well forward of centre, as is common in single-masted vessels with a square sail.
Figure 3. Idealised section of the keel, stem and sternpost (left of figure) (after Steffy 1994: 45).
Figure 4. Section through the central part of the hull (after Steffy 1994: 49).
Frames
The framing, with 19 frames preserved (Pinus halepensis), of square section 9 cm a side, spaced on average 25 cm apart,3 showed a regular alternation of floor timbers and half-frames (Figure 5). They were fastened to the hull by copper nails with bent-over points, with heads 2.5 cm in diameter on average and a square shank4 1.2 cm wide, driven from the outside; the framing was never fastened to the keel. In the side areas of the hull, the wooden treenails 2 cm in diameter that hold the frames were used as guides or plugs for the nails (Figure 6).
Figure 5. Schematic view of two sections of the wreck. The upper one corresponds to a floor timber followed by futtocks, in which the lower notch or heel is obtained by adding a complementary chock. The lower one corresponds to the half-frames followed by futtocks, with reverse top timbers reinforcing between the two sections; these are located in the upperworks, in the parts of the hull where the maximum beam begins to decrease (by the author, after Steffy 1994: 51).
Figure 6. Schematic section showing the use of wooden treenails as guides or plugs for the copper nails (P. NAIL), and the lead sheathing and its nailing (SH. NAIL) (after Steffy 1994: 58).
Planking
The hull strakes (Pinus halepensis) were 3.5 to 4.1 cm thick and were joined by a large number of mortises and tenons, with an average spacing of 11.7 cm. The mortises in the hull strakes are more than 10 cm deep, 4.3 cm wide and 0.6 cm thick, with an average spacing of 7 cm (Steffy 1985). They are arranged in the strakes in a precise, staggered order, so that the mortises on the two edges of the same strake do not coincide (Figure 7). The tenons are of oak (Quercus cerris L.), with rounded edges, and are about 1 cm shorter than the sum of two opposing mortises. The locking pegs are also of oak (Quercus cerris L.) (Steffy 1994: 43), with an average diameter of 1 cm on the inner face and 0.6 cm on the outer face. They were driven from the inside of the hull. Some planking strakes had been pre-assembled, joined to form a longer strake before being fitted to the hull, as shown by the presence of a reinforcing nail in the simple bevelled scarf and by a particular arrangement of the mortises (Figure 8, b).
Figure 7. Schematic view of the position of the mortises on both edges of the same planking strake (after Steffy 1994: 48).
Figure 8. Schematic view of the orientation of the mortises in relation to the scarf between two lengths of plank. Option b indicates, from the position of the nails, the one that was joined before being fitted to the hull (after Steffy 1994: 48).
Figure 9. Plan of one of the repair strakes inserted into the hull. The hatched rectangles correspond to the insertion of the head of the repair tenon, as seen in the section (after Steffy 1994: 57).
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
The hull had two wales on each side, 6.1 to 8 cm thick, the lower one close to the waterline. The internal longitudinal structure preserved a series of stringers, the most notable 5 cm thick, nailed to the frames at the level of the wale.
Caulking
According to the excavators, the outer face of the hull had been coated with black pitch (never on the edges of the strakes) mixed with wood shavings, and then received a sheathing of lead sheets 1 mm thick, overlapping and fastened by numerous copper nails (almost tacks), probably above the waterline up to the sheer (Figure 10).
Figure 10. Diagram of the lead sheathing at the keel. A: distribution of the nails on a lead sheet; B: distribution of the nails at the overlap of two sheets; C: how the keel shoe is left free (after Steffy 1994: 58).
Size and scantlings
A small coastal vessel 14.5 m long and 4 m in beam, with a burden of 20 t (Steffy 1994: 48; Pomey et al. 1997: 169).
The Hellenic Institute for the Preservation of Nautical Tradition, under the direction of H. Tzalas, built a replica of the Kyrenia over three years, completing it in 1985 (Figure 11). A voyage in the Aegean was made in 1987, covering 1,260 miles with a crew of five and 10 t of cargo, with a minimum average speed of 3 knots and averages of 5 and 6 knots with a favourable wind. The replica showed excellent seaworthiness, demonstrating the quality of the design and construction of the original Greek ship of the 4th century BC (Pomey et al. 1997).
Figure 11. Construction of the replica of the Kyrenia (after Casson 1994: 33).
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Kyrenia Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel False keel (shoe) | 10–12 – | – 3.8–4.8 |
| Keelson | – | – |
| Maststep Mortise | – – | – – |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Frames | 9 | 9 |
| Futtocks | – | – |
| Room-and-space At central frames | 25 (avg.) | |
| Planking Garboard | – – | 3.5–4.1 3.6 |
| Wales | – | 6.1–8 |
| Ceiling (stringer) | – | 5 |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
Keel: 12 cm wide at its upper face and 10 cm at its lower face; 9.33 m long. False keel 8.43 m long. Room-and-space: 50 cm from floor timber to floor timber.
Wood
Keel, planking and frames: Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis). False keel, tenons and pegs: Turkey oak (Quercus cerris L.).
Bibliography
Casson, L. 1994. Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times. London: British Museum Press.
Foerster, F., Pascual, R. and Barberà, J. 1987. El pecio romano de Palamós. Barcelona.
Gianfrotta, P. A. and Pomey, P. 1981. Archeologia subacquea. Storia, tecniche, scoperte e relitti. Milan: Mondadori.
Katzev, M. L. and Katzev, S. W. 1974. Last harbor for the oldest ship. National Geographic 146.5: 618–625.
Pomey, P. (ed.), Gianfrotta, P. A., Nieto, X. and Tchernia, A. 1997. La navigation dans l’Antiquité. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud.
Roman, R. 1997. Étude architecturale comparative de sept navires de commerce gréco-romains et byzantins. Doctoral thesis. Lille: ANRT.
Steffy, J. R. 1985. The Kyrenia ship: an interim report on its hull construction. American Journal of Archaeology 89.1: 71–101.
Steffy, J. R. 1994. Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
Notes
1 The presence of a coin of Demetrios Poliorketes of Macedonia allowed the wreck to be dated to the last years of the 4th century BC.
2 The carpenter used an edged tool to mark the position of each mortise to be cut on the keel with two lines (Steffy 1994: 43).
3 From floor timber to floor timber the distance is therefore 50 cm.
4 According to Foerster (1987: 175), the Kyrenia ship also has nails of circular section.