The Tektaş Burnu Shipwreck: Shedding New Light on Classical Ionia

For three summers between 1999 and 2001, underwater excavations off the Aegean coast of Turkey atTektaş Burnu revealed the remains of a small Greek merchant ship that sank between 440 and 425 B.C. or
shortly thereafter. The vessel was carrying a primary cargo of wine and pine tar contained in more than
200 transport amphoras and smaller quantities of East Greek pottery. At the time the Tektaş Burnu ship
sunk in the third quarter of the fifth century B.C., Athens was the leading naval power in the
Mediterranean, a position the Athenians achieved through the economic exploitation of allied city-states
and heavy-handed control over maritime trade. As the only Classical shipwreck ever to be fully excavated
in Aegean waters, the Tektaş Burnu ship promises to shed light on local trade networks at a time when
Ionia was thought to be mired in an “economic paralysis” brought on by the high cost of Athenian
imperialism in the decades following the Ionian Revolt of 499 B.C.

Deborah Carlson is Associate Professor in the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University.
Prof. Carlson specializes in trade and seafaring in the ancient Mediterranean.

Sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America with cooperation from the UCSB Department of Classics.

jwil 03.x.2011