Serçe Limanı

Country: Turkey

Place: Serçe Limanı (“Sparrow Harbor”), near Bozburun, southwestern Turkish coast, opposite Rhodes

Type: Small Byzantine (Byzantino-Slavic) merchant ship, double-ended

Identified: Not otherwise identified; known as the Serçe Limanı (“Glass”) Wreck

Dated: Ca. AD 1025, by ceramic and numismatic evidence

Beam: 5.3 m (17 Byzantine feet)

Length Overall: Ca. 15 m (50 Byzantine feet), as reconstructed

Number of Masts: Two, lateen-rigged, per the original reconstruction (a 2024 reassessment has argued for a single mast)

History of the shipwreck

During a shipwreck survey in 1973 along the southwestern Turkish coast, archaeologists from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology hired local retired sponge diver Mehmet Aşkin of Bozburun to help locate possible sites for future investigations. Aşkin led the team to the small bay called Serçe Limanı (Sparrow Harbor), and a shipwreck noted for scattered broken glass (Bass and van Doorninck 2004, 51-2). Initial dives revealed an intact amphora that was later dated to the eleventh century. Although the massive glass cargo was intriguing, the eventual decision to excavate the site was due to the thoroughly buried mound, suggesting a high level of preservation of the original hull and its tentative date to a period less known archaeologically. Political turmoil in the eastern Mediterranean and the subsequent Turkish invasion of Cyprus stalled any initial work. Excavations eventually began in 1977 and continued until 1979, with the removal of the artifacts and remaining hull structure (Bass et al. 1984, 161-4). Researchers subsequently concluded that the remains were from a small merchant ship that sailed into the bay around AD 1025, possibly seeking shelter before continuing its voyage. Evidence from the site suggests that the crew were Hellenized Bulgarians. Either a storm or an unexpected wind channeled into the bay, broke the main anchor, and drove the small vessel against the nearby jagged shoreline.

Serçe Limanı's artifacts represent an important transition for the Byzantine world into the late medieval period. The collection of glass recovered from the wreck remains one of the largest ever to be archaeologically recovered, and the ship is also considered one of the earliest examples of exclusively frame-based construction identified in the Mediterranean (Pulak 2018, 245).

Description of the site

The wreck lies at a depth of about 33 m at the head of Serçe Limanı, under a thoroughly buried mound that favored the preservation of the hull and its cargo. Nearly 20% of the hull survived, much of it in fragmentary condition (Bass and van Doorninck 2004).

Cargo

The vessel carried a cargo of broken glass — about three tons of cullet and glassware, roughly a third of it waste from an Islamic glass factory on the Fatimid Syrian coast — together with glassware, Islamic ceramics (nearly 50 glazed bowls and about 50 red-ware cooking vessels), copper cauldrons and buckets, sumac, raisins, and other trade goods (Delgado 1998, 367-9).

Hull Remains

Nearly 20% of the hull survived, in fragmentary condition. The ship is considered one of the earliest known examples of exclusively frame-based (frame-first) construction in the Mediterranean (Pulak 2018, 245).

Keel

The keel is rectangular in section, with its greater dimension extending away from the hull (i.e., deeper than it is wide). There are no rabbets on the keel, and each end presumably terminated in a flat scarf connected to the endposts. The stem did not survive; a small fragment of the rounded sternpost and its associated assembly suggest the ship was double-ended (Steffy 1982, 20-1). A rebated keelson ran along the centerline of the ship and was bolted through the floor timbers to the keel; a pair of square sister-keelsons was fastened to the frames on either side of it (Matthews and Steffy 2004, 88-98).

Frames

Framing relied on alternating L-shaped floor timbers, together with two pairs of half-frames acting as tail frames near either end of the vessel. Most floor timbers and futtocks overlap, while the dual master frames at the center of the ship include vertical flat scarfs joined with one or two nails. Elements of the construction suggest the ship was built using the Byzantine foot (31.23 cm) as its proportional unit of measurement. Other frame stations do not show the same care in scarfing or nailing the overlapping ends of floor timbers and futtocks. Most floor timbers and futtocks are thicker than they are wide, and the floor timbers were also nailed to the keel (Matthews and Steffy 2004, 88-98).

Planking

The planking was installed in two stages: first from the garboard to the turn of the bilge, then the upper strakes, with the planking at the turn of the bilge installed last. More nails were used at each frame station than on later archaeological examples, with four to six iron nails per station (Matthews and Steffy 2004, 88-98).

Ceiling, thick stuff and wales

Further out from the sister-keelsons, a pair of stringers was fitted at equal distance from the keelson to the turn of the bilge, and a second pair rested directly over the turn of the bilge. Both pairs of stringers, of different dimensions, were chamfered; the bilge stringers were rebated for ceiling planks that rested on top of the sister-keelsons. Rather than fastening the ceiling directly to the framing, as on many later ships, this earlier example indicates a raised platform above the bilge (Steffy 1982, 25). Two wales were also identified: a thicker main wale closer to the waterline and a smaller one above it, separated by a single strake; both were chamfered along their upper edges, in a manner similar to the stringers (Steffy 1994, 89-91).

Fastenings

Nails had square shanks, bolts had round shanks, and the few treenails present are round in section. Treenails in the planking are few and inconsistent, suggesting they are from later repairs and not part of the original construction (Matthews and Steffy 2004, 107, 162).

Caulking

There is evidence of caulking between the seams, and the entire hull was covered in pitch, inside and out (Steffy 1994, 91; Matthews and Steffy 2004, 156).

Size and scantlings

The vessel is reconstructed at approximately 15 m in length overall (50 Byzantine feet), with a beam of 5.3 m (17 Byzantine feet); keel length is not reported. In transverse section the hull presents a flat floor with a slight deadrise and a hard chine that flares outward at 72° (Steffy 1994, 91; Matthews and Steffy 2004, 156). Detailed sided and molded dimensions for the individual timbers are not reported in the sources reviewed.

References

Bass, George F., Sheila D. Matthews, J. Richard Steffy, and Frederick H. van Doorninck Jr., Serçe Limanı: An Eleventh-Century Shipwreck, Volume I: The Ship and Its Anchorage, Crew, and Passengers, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004;

Bass, George F., Frederick H. van Doorninck Jr., et al., “Excavation of an Eleventh-Century Shipwreck at Serçe Limanı, Turkey,” preliminary excavation report, 1984;

Bendig, C., 2021. Mediterraneum Mare: Shipbuilding in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (AD 1000 – 1700). PhD Dissertation, Texas A&M University.

Delgado, James P., ed., Encyclopedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998;

Pulak, Cemal, “Transition from Shell to Skeleton in Ancient Mediterranean Ship Construction,” 2018;

Steffy, J. Richard, “The Reconstruction of the 11th Century Serçe Liman Vessel: A Preliminary Report,” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 11.1 (1982): 13-34;

Steffy, J. Richard, Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994.