Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Turkey says it found a very old ship under the sea. The ship is about 4,700 years old. Many people call it the oldest shipwreck in the world.
The ship is near Kekova Island in southern Turkey. The wood is gone. Only clay jars are left on the sea floor.
The jars were made far away, in the Jordan Valley. They may have carried olive oil or wine.
- shipwreck
- A ship that sank in the sea.
- ancient
- Very, very old.
- jar
- A round container, often made of clay.
- clay
- Soft earth that becomes hard when it is baked.
- island
- Land with water all around it.
- wine
- A drink made from grapes.
- olive oil
- Oil made from olives, used for cooking.
- wood
- The hard part of a tree.
Level 2 - Elementary
Turkey's culture and tourism minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, announced on October 14 that archaeologists had found what he called the world's oldest shipwreck. The site is near Kekova Island in Antalya province, on the southern coast.
The ship's wooden body did not survive, but divers found ceramic storage jars from the Early Bronze Age, about 4,700 years old. Tests on the clay show that the jars were made in workshops in the Jordan Valley.
Researchers think the ship was sailing from the Levantine coast to the area of Hisarlik in Turkey or to the island of Crete in Greece when it sank. The jars probably carried olive oil or wine. Some news reports say the ship may be the oldest, because the claim comes from the ministry.
- announce
- To tell the public something officially.
- province
- A region of a country.
- ceramic
- Made of baked clay.
- workshop
- A place where people make things.
- Bronze Age
- An ancient time when people made tools from bronze.
- coast
- The land next to the sea.
- capsize
- To turn over in the water.
- diver
- A person who swims deep under water.
Level 3 - Intermediate
Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced on October 14 that excavations near Kekova Island, off the southern province of Antalya, had uncovered treasures from what he described as the world's oldest shipwreck. Several American outlets were more careful, writing that archaeologists "may have" found it, since the "oldest" label rests on the ministry's claim and has not been independently confirmed.
The vessel's wooden hull has vanished, so the evidence is its cargo: ceramic storage jars dated to about 4,700 years ago, in the Early Bronze Age. Analysis of the clay points to workshops in the Jordan Valley, which means the ship was carrying goods across a long sea route.
Researchers believe it was bound from the Levantine coast toward Hisarlik, the site of ancient Troy, in modern Turkey, or toward Crete in Greece when it capsized. The jars are thought to have held olive oil or wine. If the dating holds, the find would show that organised long-distance sea trade existed far earlier than many people imagine.
- excavation
- The careful digging up of a historical site.
- hull
- The main body of a ship.
- cargo
- Goods carried by a ship or plane.
- vessel
- A ship or large boat.
- independently
- Without help or influence from others.
- analysis
- A careful study of something's parts.
- bound for
- Travelling toward a place.
- organised
- Arranged in a planned way.
Level 4 - Advanced
Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced in a post on X that excavations off Kekova Island, in the southern province of Antalya, had recovered artefacts from what he called the world's oldest shipwreck. The superlative deserves caution: several outlets wrote that archaeologists "may have" found it, and nothing in the coverage amounts to independent confirmation of the ranking.
What is not in doubt is the cargo. The timbers have long since dissolved, leaving ceramic storage jars from the Early Bronze Age, roughly 4,700 years old. Petrographic analysis of the clay traces them to workshops in the Jordan Valley, so the ship was a long-haul carrier rather than a local fishing boat, probably sailing from the Levantine coast toward Hisarlik, the Anatolian site usually identified with Troy, or toward Crete.
If the dating is sound, the wreck pushes back the documented age of deep-water commerce and suggests that standardised containers of olive oil or wine were already moving across the eastern Mediterranean in the third millennium BCE. A wreck like this is valuable precisely because a sunk cargo is a sealed snapshot: it records what was traded, where it was made and how far it travelled, with none of the later reshuffling that complicates finds on land.
- artefact
- An object made by people in the past.
- superlative
- The highest degree, such as 'oldest'.
- dissolve
- To break down and disappear into something.
- petrographic
- Relating to the study of rocks and minerals.
- commerce
- The buying and selling of goods.
- standardised
- Made to a common size or pattern.
- millennium
- A period of one thousand years.
- snapshot
- A short record of one moment.
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