Uluburun, c. 1310 BC
Country: Turkey
Place: Uluburun, near Kaş, south-west coast of Turkey, at a depth of 44–61 m
Coordinates (approximate): 36.13, 29.68
Type: Late Bronze Age merchant ship
Identified: No
Dated: c. 1310 BC by dendrochronology (Pulak 1999: 209), a date questioned by some authors.
Beam: Unknown.
Keel Length: Unknown.
Length Overall: Suggested at 15 m (Pulak 2000: 28).
Number of Masts: Unknown.
History of the wreck
The site was discovered near Kaş, on the south-west coast of Turkey, by a sponge diver in 1982, and was excavated by the I.N.A. in eleven consecutive campaigns between 1984 and 1994 under the direction of G. F. Bass and Cemal Pulak.
In Egypt, in the tomb of Kenamun at Thebes (Basch 1987: 63, fig. 114), there is a descriptive fresco showing several similar ships moored, with square sails and without rowers, with sailors whose features identify them as from the Syro-Palestinian coast (Figure 1). The date proposed for the Uluburun (1310 BC) (Pulak 1999: 209) matches the 14th-century BC date of the tomb, although there are some doubts in the literature about the dendrochronological study supporting it, which call for caution (Manning et al. 2001), with a possible lowering of the date. Other authors, such as Manfred Bietak (2004: 222), have openly criticised the methodology and prefer to date the wreck by the material found on board, such as the Mycenaean pottery (Late Mycenaean III A2) and a gold scarab of Nefertiti. Regardless of this debate, this is without doubt the earliest archaeological evidence of a seagoing ship.
Figure 1. Ships in the tomb of Kenamun at Thebes (after Basch 1987: 64, fig. 114).
Description of the site
The stern of the wreck lay at a depth of 44 m, the bow at 52 m and remains of the cargo at 61 m (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Plan of the eastern area of the site, with the hull fragment of the Uluburun (after Pulak 2002: 635).
Cargo
The heterogeneous cargo includes 354 copper ingots and 40 tin ingots, together with an extremely varied range of goods, from ostrich eggs, glass paste, ivory and amber and a tonne of terebinth resin (prized in ancient cosmetics) to foodstuffs and manufactured products.
Ballast
Some of the stone anchors seem to have served to improve the trim and stability of the ship under way (Pulak 2000).
Anchors
The ship carried at least 24 stone anchors, weighing between 120 and 210 kg, and two smaller ones of only 16 and 21 kg.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not applicable. The hull fragment was preserved under the copper concretion of the ingots.
Hull Remains
Under the copper concretion of the ingots a small fragment of the ship’s hull, 1.8 × 1.0 m, was found. It consists of a fragment of the keel without rabbet, the garboard strakes and a first planking strake, with no remains of framing (Figure 3). The construction is shell-first, with the strakes laid edge to edge and assembled by mortises and tenons locked by pegs.
Keel, keelson and mast step
From the published sections (Figure 3), the garboard strake, of polygonal section, differs from later construction in that it meets the keel (28 cm wide and 22 cm high) at the middle of its height, 10 cm below its upper face, unlike what is usual in Graeco-Roman construction; this would have had consequences for the framing (if any), for which there is no evidence.1 The tenons are locked by pegs 2.2 cm in diameter, driven from the underside of the keel.
Figure 3. Plan and sections of the surviving hull remains of the Uluburun wreck (after Pulak 1999: 215, 264, fig. 2).
Frames
No framing was preserved.
Planking
The mortises are very deep, so that they stop only some 1.5–2 cm short of passing right through the strake. Together with their particular distribution and spacing (Figure 3), this led Pulak to suggest that the hull was thus more robust than with the classic Graeco-Roman arrangement, although stress tests on replicas were not conclusive (Pulak 2003: 30). The mortises measure c. 6–7 cm wide, about 13–15 cm deep and 1.5–2 cm thick, so the tenons may be c. 30 cm long. Looking at the side face of the garboard strake and the second strake, the distance from centre to centre of each mortise is a regular 24–26 cm. The mortises were cut so that those on one edge of a strake are in ordered contact with those on the opposite edge, sometimes entering into one another (Figure 3). At first this technique seemed greatly to compromise the ship’s structure, but in fact the ordered placing of the mortises produces what might be considered the equivalent of a framing, invisible and “inserted” within the hull itself (Pulak 1999: 220; 2003: 29). Contrary to what was first written (Bass 1985), the planks are of cedar (Cedrus sp.) and not fir (Abies sp.) (Pulak 2002).
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
Not preserved.
Caulking
Not reported.
Size and scantlings
The ship’s length has been suggested at 15 m and its burden at 20 t (Pulak 2000: 28). The keel measures 28 × 22 cm.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Uluburun Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel | 28 | 22 |
| Keelson | – | – |
| Maststep Mortise | – – | – – |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Floor timbers | – | – |
| Futtocks | – | – |
| Room-and-space At central frames | – | |
| Planking | – | – |
| Ceiling | – | – |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
Mortises c. 6–7 cm wide, 13–15 cm deep and 1.5–2 cm thick, spaced 24–26 cm centre to centre; tenon-locking pegs 2.2 cm in diameter.
Wood
The planking is of cedar (Cedrus sp.). The tenons and locking pegs were made of oak (Quercus sp.), giving the first example of a duality repeated on other sites: ships whose planking is made of a wood with optimal properties in a wet environment, such as flexibility and resistance to rot, joined by tenons and pegs made of a very hard, heavy wood.2
Bibliography
Bass, G. F. 1985. The construction of a seagoing vessel of the Late Bronze Age. In H. Tzalas (ed.), Tropis I. 1st International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity, Piraeus 1985, 25–36. Athens.
Basch, L. 1987. Le musée imaginaire de la marine antique. Athens: Institut hellénique pour la préservation de la tradition nautique.
Bietak, M. 2004. Review of S. W. Manning, A Test of Time: The Volcano of Thera and the Chronology and History of the Aegean and East Mediterranean in the Mid Second Millennium BC. Bibliotheca Orientalis 61: 199–222.
Manning, S. W., Kromer, B., Kuniholm, P. I. and Newton, M. W. 2001. Anatolian tree rings and a new chronology for the East Mediterranean Bronze–Iron Ages. Science 294: 2532–2535.
Pulak, C. 1999. The Late Bronze Age shipwreck at Uluburun: aspects of hull construction. In W. Phelps, Y. Lolos and Y. Vichos (eds), The Point Iria Wreck: Interconnections in the Mediterranean ca. 1200 BC, 209–238. Athens: Hellenic Institute of Marine Archaeology.
Pulak, C. 2000. The balance weights from the Late Bronze Age shipwreck at Uluburun. In C. F. E. Pare (ed.), Metals Make the World Go Round: The Supply and Circulation of Metals in Bronze Age Europe, 247–266. Oxford: Oxbow.
Pulak, C. 2002. The Uluburun hull remains. In H. Tzalas (ed.), Tropis VII. 7th International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity, Pylos 1999, 615–636. Athens.
Pulak, C. 2003. Mortise-and-tenon joints of Bronze Age seagoing ships. In C. Beltrame (ed.), Boats, Ships and Shipyards. Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Venice 2000, 28–34. Oxford: Oxbow.
Steffy, J. R. 1994. Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
Notes
1 Framing could have existed if the spacing between frames was greater than 1.8 m, the length of the surviving fragment.
2 In Steffy’s view (1994: 46) there is a mechanical reason for this. The tenons must be of a very hard wood, since on the one hand they are very thin pieces, and on the other they are not mere “connectors”, a function they could fulfil with a shorter length, but a true “invisible” framing. The tenons also have to withstand considerable mechanical twisting under way, so they must be very strong.