AppArch Newslet 1 : 23 March 2020 Dear <<Greeting Names>> I hope this find you well. Apparch promised you the occasional "Newslet" to keep your interest in archaeology alight - herewith our latest. Stay safe. Martin Joyce Shipwrecked off Kyrenia John and Pat Keith visited Kyrenia Castle in Northern Cyprus on a holiday recently and have passed us some interesting observations. The castle was built by the Venetians in the 16th-century on top of an older Crusader fortification. It includes a twelfth-century chapel with reused late Roman capitals and the Shipwreck Museum. This houses the remains one of the oldest trading ships known in the world, salvaged from the sea bed less than a mile from Kyrenia harbour. The ship is believed to have sunk in rough seas around the year 300BC at the time of Alexander the Great. In 1967, Michael Katzev of the University Museum of Pennsylvania directed a survey team looking for shipwrecks of the coast of Cyprus. A local Kyrenia sponge diver pointed to a promising area and using a metal detector, protonmagnetometer and probes, the group spent a month surveying the seabed, eventually finding the wreck and its cargo. During the following summers of 1968 and 1969, a team of 50 underwater archaeologists, students and technicians, employed stereo-photography and other techniques to record the position of each object before extracting them. The well preserved wooden hull of the ship was then "mapped" and lifted in pieces to the surface for careful examination and preservation. Both the ship and her cargo are now displayed in the museum, where they provide a wonderful insight into the life of merchants and trading in those far off times The main part of the cargo comprised over 400 wine amphorae. The majority of these had been made in Rhodes ... evidence that the ship had made an important stop at that island. However ten distinct amphora shapes point to another port of call ... perhaps Samos to the north. The cargo also included 9000 perfectly preserved almonds in jars and 29 millstones placed over the keel in three rows, serving as ballast. A mason's letters of identification carved on the sides of these stones indicate they probably came from a quarry on the island of Kos. Lead net weights found in the bow of the ship suggested the sailors fished during the voyage, probably preparing meals onshore in large casserole pots and a bronze cauldron. From all this, it is possible to reconstruct the ship's last voyage sailing south along the coast of Anatolia, calling at Samos, Kos and Rhodes before continuing eastwards to founder and sink off Cyprus. Our mailing address is: Appleby Archaeology Group North Gate, Milburn Penrith, County (Optional) CA10 1TN United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list..