Two Early Archaic Shipwrecks at Kekova Adası and Kepçe Burnu, Turkey

Abstract

During its annual surveys of the Turkish coast in the 1970s and 1980s, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology discovered two early Archaic (7th‐ to early‐6th‐century BC) shipwrecks at Kekova Adası (Antalya region) and Kepçe Burnu (Muğla region); Dokuz Eylül University's Institute of Marine Science and Technology is currently involved in survey of the region. The wrecks, marked by a primary cargo of basket‐handle amphoras, indicate exchange between Cyprus and the cities of coastal Asia Minor and Corinth. Such Iron Age internationalism may have been driven by an interest in processed agricultural goods such as olive oil.

© 2010 The Authors

Key words:

• Turkey
• shipwreck
• Kekova Adası
• Kepçe Burnu
• Archaic
• basket‐handle amphora

Acknowledgements

George Bass, Cemal Pulak, and Faith Hentschel generously shared reports and photographs of INA surveys to Kekova Adası and Kepçe Burnu conducted between 1973 and 2004. We thank the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, its Regional Directorates in Muğla and Antalya, the Antalya Museum, and the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. Support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, DEU's Institute of Marine Science and Technology, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario's Ministry of Research and Innovation, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and INA made this study possible.

Notes

1 Aside from the ‘Kepeç’ (no. 542) and ‘Çökertme A’ (no. 324) wrecks discussed here (see also below n.5), A. J. Parker's 1992 catalogue records only one shipwreck in the eastern Mediterranean that dates between 850 and 600 BC: the ‘Atlit A’ wreck (no. 1), Israel, 7th century(?). In the western Mediterranean, Parker notes ‘Huelva’ (no. 508), Spain, 9th century; ‘Cádiz F’ (no. 133), Spain, 7th or 6th century; ‘Coltellazzo A’ (no. 329), Italy, 7th‐6th centuries; and ‘Dómu de S’Órku’ (no. 365), Sardinia, 700–400. Wrecks in this period discovered since the publication of Parker's compendium include, in the east: Tanit and Elissa, near Israel, 8th century (Ballard et al., 2002); in the west: Mazarron, Spain, second half of 7th century (Negueruela et al., 1995); Bajo de la Campana, Spain, 7th‐6th centuries (Roland Bernal et al., 1995).

2 The authors are grateful to George Bass, Faith Hentschel, Robin Piercy, and Cemal Pulak for providing access to notes, photographs, and personal reflections of the 1973, 1980, 1983, 1996, and 2004 surveys. Photographs from the 2004 survey proved invaluable to the present study.

3 Basket‐handle amphoras raised from the previous surveys to Kekova Adası and Kepçe Burnu have been sampled as part of a broader program of ceramic petrography. Currently under way, this study has been funded in part through a Harris Grant from the American Schools of Oriental Research and a petrography internship at the Institute for Aegean Prehistory.

4 While parallels for the jars from Kekova Adası can be found at Miletos, the geographic designation ‘Milesian’ has served as something of a catch‐all for what seems to be a more regional koiné of 7th‐century south‐east Aegean jars, and a particular production city cannot be clearly determined at this stage. Lawall (2003) suggests that the typical paradigm of associating specific amphora shapes with specific cities of production in the south‐east Aegean during this early period should probably be abandoned; on this see also Dupont, 2000.

5 Listed as separate sites with distinct co‐ordinates and different bibliography in discovery reports and Parker's (1992) catalogue, the ‘Çökertme A’ wreck (no. 324) and the wreck at ‘Kepeç’ (no. 542) should be considered a single site. Following the more modern convention of associating Turkish shipwreck sites with nearby topographic features, we adopt the modern Turkish spelling of kepçe (‘ladle’) and retain the association with the point Kepçe Burnu rather than the nearby town of Çökertme. As Parker rightly notes, Rosloff's (1981) published co‐ordinates are incorrect, and would place the wreck some distance to the east. Parker's correction, however, designates only the location of the town of Çökertme instead of the actual wreck‐site. Bass (1974, 335; 1975, 33) notes the discovery of a second possible early Archaic wreck in the Gulf of Gökova; fragments of a loop‐handle pithos, a large krater, and a belly‐handle amphora were recorded on a rocky ledge above deep sand at a depth of 33–36-m. More specific details regarding location are not available, nor do the finds appear to have been revisited subsequently.