BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Phoenician Ship Raised from the Seafloor

Archaeologists lift nearly complete vessel from Spanish waters

Examining the 2,600-year-old Phoenician Ship. Courtesy Jose Antonio Moya, University of Valencia.

A team of specialists from the University of Valencia is hard at work lifting a nearly complete Phoenician shipwreck from the seafloor off the Spanish coast of Murcia. While the ship, dubbed Mazarrón 2, has been protected by sand for more than two millennia, recent changes in coastal currents have torn away much of that protective blanket, posing an existential threat to this incredible archaeological wonder.

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Sailing the Phoenician Coast of Spain

The Phoenician ship dates to around 600 BCE, when much of southern Iberia was settled by Phoenician merchants and traders. Likely struck by a sudden storm, the ship sank only a few yards from the coastline and was quickly covered over by sand. Today, the ship is one of the most complete ancient sea vessels ever discovered. According to Carlos de Juan, director of the excavation, “This sandy substratum is the chest that has preserved it to this day. What was, at the time, a great misfortune, is today a great blessing for archaeology.”

Now, if archaeologists don’t act, what remains of the ship could be destroyed by shifting currents. Enter the daring strategy of the Valencia team: move the entire boat from the ocean to a nearby museum. While this might seem straightforward, more than 2,500 years of being submerged under water has drastically altered the ship’s wood. So, not only does the team need to fully excavate the ship underwater, but they also have to use a range of special techniques to ensure its wood doesn’t deteriorate when exposed to air. To carry this out, they are splitting the boat into 20 separate pieces and painstakingly creating molds of each piece before lifting them from their watery grave. The excavations have also revealed new finds, including pottery and remains of rope.

Wide view of the Phoenician ship. Courtesy Jose Antonio Moya, University of Valencia.

When the project is finished, the team hopes this nearly complete ancient vessel will unlock countless questions about ancient seafaring and ship construction. “It will tell us what types of wood were used to build the boat, where it was built, what navigation was like at the time, the degradation processes of the wood, [and] the contamination that may have occurred in shallow waters,” says Agustín Díez, the team’s head researcher. Furthermore, as Carlos de Juan explained, “This wreck shows us what is close to us, what is local. It tells us about the mining and metallurgical activities of the Phoenicians, who settled in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, and about a cultural transmission of nautical technology that was previously unknown in western Mediterranean areas.”

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