Eight Byzantine Shipwrecks from the Theodosian Harbour Excavations at Yenikapı in Istanbul, Turkey: an introduction

Abstract

Excavations at Yenikapı in Istanbul, Turkey, related to the Marmaray Project, have unearthed remains of Constantinople's Theodosian Harbour, including 37 Byzantine shipwrecks of 5th‐ to 11th‐century date. Eight of these shipwrecks, six round ships and two of the first long ships, or galleys, to be excavated from the Byzantine period, were studied by archaeologists from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. These well‐preserved shipwrecks are an important new source of information on the maritime commerce of Constantinople and the gradual shift from shell‐based to skeleton‐based shipbuilding in the Mediterranean during the second half of the first millennium AD.

Key words:

• Constantinople
• Theodosian Harbour
• Marmaray Project
• medieval
• transition in ship construction
• galley

Acknowledgements

The excavation was financed by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA); the past and present members of the INA Board of Directors Lucy Darden, John De Lapa, Gregory Cook, Faith Hentschel, John Baird, and Charles Consalvo, without whose generous financial support the excavation could not have been completed; Yüksel Proje International Inc.; the Gama‐Nurol Partnership; as well as other private donors. Post‐excavation documentation was financed by INA, the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation (CMAC), the Nautical Archaeology Program, the College of Liberal Arts, the Department of Anthropology, and the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University; the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) and US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; and the American Philosophical Society's Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Research. The INA team included Cemal Pulak (director), Sheila Matthews (assistant director), and the following archaeologists and staff: Yasemin Aydoğdu, Korhan Bircan, Murat Bircan, Can Ciner, Emrah Çankaya, Mehmet Çiftlikli, Tuba Ekmekçi, Funda Genç, Rebecca Ingram, İlkay İvgin, Michael Jones, Sarah Kampbell, Gülser Kazancıoğlu, Orkan Köyağasıoğlu, Matthew Labbe, Ryan Lee, Asaf Oron, Robin Piercy, Jessica Stika, Evren Türkmenoğlu, and Seda Ülger. Many thanks to the director of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums Zeynep Kızıltan, former director İsmail Karamut, assistant directors Rahmi Asal and Gülbahar Baran Çelik, and archaeologists Yaşar Anılır, Sırrı Çölmekçi, Metin Gökçay, Bekir Köşker, Özlem Kömürcü, Emre Öncü, Mehmet Ali Polat, and Arzu Toksoy for their assistance in the field. Comments by the two anonymous reviewers greatly improved this article and are much appreciated.

Notes

1. The tentative dendrochronology date is based on an analysis of sample YK 14001 by the University of Arizona's Tree Ring Research Laboratory. The sample was radially split from a fast‐growing tree and included raw ring‐width data of 189 years plus one unmeasured outer ring; the sequence was dated from AD 602‐790. Sapwood is absent, and the felling date is estimated as occurring after AD 801.

2. Previously published estimates of YK 14's dimensions indicate a length of 14-m and a breadth of 3.5–4-m (Pulak et al., 2013: 30; Jones, forthcoming). The length‐to‐beam ratio of 4.2:1 was calculated using YK 14's length between perpendiculars of 14.2-m (Steffy, 1994: 253–54).

3. This ship is incorrectly reported as having a preserved bilge keel in Pomey et al., 2012: 290, table-3.

Additional information

Funding

Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA)