The Oldest Shipwrecks in the World

Tim Pigott-Smith In the early 1960s a young archaeologist Dr George Bass donned a wetsuit and aqualung, learned to dive and began excavating an ancient shipwreck lying on the seabed off the coast of Turkey. Since then his pioneering techniques in the Mediterranean have led to the discovery of early ships laden with amphorae; cargoes of copper, silver, bronze and gold; and, even more precious to the archaeologists, evidence of the ships themselves. Influenced by Bass, British archaeologist Mensun Bound is attempting to excavate an Athenian wreck of the fifth century BC. It lies among the acidic sulphur bubbles and hot lava of an underwater volcano off Sicily. But Bass, meanwhile, must decide whether to take one last dive on the most spectacular wreck of all. It sank 3,500 years ago in the Bronze Age. Could it be the oldest shipwreck in the world?