Uluburun is the name of a Late Bronze Age ship, wrecked off the coast of Turkey near Kas in the 14th century BC, six miles from the coast and 50 meters below the water's surface. Archaeologists believe the ship originated in coastal Syria-Palestine, based on the crew's belonging, and may in fact have come from Ugarit, the largest coastal port in Syria of the day.
Uluburun (not its original name) was a trade ship, carrying both raw materials and finished merchandise including glass, copper and tin ingots, elephant tusks, Egyptian ebony, hippopotamus teeth, terebinth resin, and ostrich eggs; dendrochronology pins the construction date to 1306 BC. Artifacts on board are from nearly every Mediterranean civilization of the time, including Canaanite jars and jewelry, Egyptian scarabs and faience, Mycenaean beads, Cypriot pottery, Mesopotamian shell rings. Food stuffs on board included olives, almonds, safflower, grapes, figs, pomegranates, wheat and barley. Also included in the wreck were raw glass ingots from the flourishing glass trade.
A recent study of mouse bones found on board the wreck supports earlier contentions that one of Uluburun's last stops before sinking was the port city of Ugarit (Minet el Beida) in Syria.
Excavations at the wreck were conducted beginning in 1984 by a research team led by Texas A&M's Institute of Nautical Archaeology, and directed by Cemal Pulak and George F. Bass.
Sources
The Uluburun website is excellent.
Bachhuber, Christoph 2006 Aegean Interest on the Uluburun Ship. American Journal of Archaeology 110(3):345-364.
Cucchi, T. 2008 Uluburun shipwreck stowaway house mouse: molar shape analysis and indirect clues about the vessel’s last journey. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(11):2953-2959.
Evrin, V., et al. 2002 Stone anchors from the Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia, Turkey: underwater surveys and archaeometrical investigations. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 31(2):254-267.
Pulak, Cemal 1998 The Uluburun shipwreck: an overview. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 27(3):188-224.
Stern, B. et al. 2008 New investigations into the Uluburun resin cargo. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(8):2188-2203.
Ward, Cheryl 2003 Pomegranates in Eastern Mediterranean Contexts during the Late Bronze Age. World Archaeology 34(3):529-541.
