Ancient Black Sea shipwrecks

In a series of expeditions beginning around 2000, the NOAA Ocean Exploration program led by Robert Ballard identified what appeared to be ancient shorelines, freshwater snail shells, and drowned river valleys in roughly 100 m (330 ft) of water off the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey.

[3] In 2008, Ballard and his team conducted an expedition that focused on the exploration of the sea bed about 15–30 km west of Sinop, and an additional deep-water survey east and north of the peninsula.

The jars may have carried a variety of archetypal Black Sea products such as olive oil, honey, wine or fish sauce but the contents are presently unknown because no artifacts were recovered from any of these wreck sites in 2000.

[citation needed] The wreck found provided the team with vast information about both the technological changes and trade that occurred in the Black Sea during a period of political, social and economic transition through their study of the ship’s construction techniques.

[4] The examination of the four shipwrecks found by Ballard and his team provide the direct evidence for Black Sea maritime trade so well attested by the distribution of ceramics on land.

The amphorae highest on the mound had fallen over without displacing those still standing in the rows beneath them, and it is likely that the ship settled upright on the sea-bed, gradually being both buried in and filled with sediment as exposed wood was devoured by the larva of the shipworm.

[5] Two discrete and mostly buried piles of carrot-shaped shipping jars comprise shipwreck C. The team’s visit to the site was short and was intended primarily to test survey methodology for deep-water procedures.

[6] The Institute for Exploration Black Sea expeditions relied on remote sensing with side-scan sonar in shallow and deep water to identify potential archaeological sites examined by ROVs.

[9][citation needed] Also in 2018, a Greek merchant vessel dating to around 400 BC was discovered, almost completely intact, off the coast of the Bulgarian city of Burgas at a depth of roughly 2,000 m (1.2 mi) by ROV.