Ancient Mediterranean Shipwrecks to be Featured in First Israeli-funded National Geographic Channel Film

A team of oceanographers and archaeologists led by Robert D. Ballard of the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut, and Lawrence Stager of Harvard University has found two ancient Phoenician shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel.

Lying more than 1,000 feet (305 meters) below the surface, they are the oldest vessels ever discovered in the deep sea. The ships were most likely lost in a violent storm around 750 B.C., during the time of Homer. The expedition was partly sponsored by the National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Council.

The National Geographic Channel will tell the story of these ancient shipwrecks in its first-ever Israeli film project. The documentary film will be the first installment of a commitment by the Channel to produce U.S.$1.6 million of original programming in Israel over the next 12 months. The expedition will also be featured in an upcoming issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine.

Kirsten McConnell, managing director of the National Geographic Channel in Israel, said, “Bob Ballard’s long string of undersea finds—the Titanic, Lusitania, Bismarck, Yorktown, and now these ancient vessels—reflect not only a window into our past, but a true partnership with the National Geographic Society. Through more than 250 grants a year, large and small, the Society is constantly extending the boundaries of human knowledge and proving that the greatest age of exploration is yet to come.” McConnell added, “The Channel is excited to have the subject of its first Israeli production a history-making expedition for Israel as well as the Society.”

The story began in 1997, when Ballard’s team used the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered research submarine NR-1 and the robotics system JASON from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to locate and explore the largest concentration of ancient ships ever discovered in the deep sea. North of the Straits of Sicily they explored and carefully mapped five Roman trading ships dating from 100 B.C. to A.D. 400. Following that expedition, the NR-1 proceeded to the Middle East, where it conducted a search for the lost Israeli submarine Dakar. Although unsuccessful in finding the Dakar, NR-1’s advanced sonar detected a number of wrecks lost in international waters at a depth of 1,000 to 3,000 feet (305 to 915 meters), some 30 miles (48 kilometers) from shore.

This month Ballard returned to the same area with Woods Hole’s MEDEA/JASON system as well as a deep-water, side-scan sonar system. Using this technology, the team was able to locate these targets and then explore them with the remotely operated vehicle JASON, which is equipped with powerful lighting and high-quality television cameras.

Based on the images revealed and a number of artifacts recovered from the wreck sites, Stager was able to establish the ships’ age, origin, cargo, and probable destination.

“It is clear from this discovery, as well as that off Sicily in 1997, that the deep ocean holds great promise to the field of archaeology,” Ballard said. “More important discoveries should come in the near future that could significantly alter our present understanding of ancient maritime trade.”

The ships are the oldest ever found in the deep sea, according to Ballard. The oldest shipwreck ever discovered was a trading ship from 1300 B.C. found in less than 200 feet (61 meters) of water off Turkey.

The two newly discovered ships are believed to have sailed from Phoenicia (now Lebanon) and probably sank while en route to Egypt or Carthage. Both were laden with large cargoes of wine carried in hundreds of ceramic amphorae. These amphorae date between 750 and 700 B.C. and rest on the sea bottom as if the ships landed upright.

The larger of the two ships is approximately 18 meters (58 feet) long, making it the largest pre-classical shipwreck ever discovered. The smaller ship measures more than 15 meters (48 feet) in length. Heavy stone anchors lie at bow and midship. Crockery for food preparation, an incense stand and a wine decanter mark the galley. These and other items leave little doubt that Phoenician crews manned these two ships, Stager said, possibly as part of a fleet of cargo carriers.

The Phoenicians were a seagoing people who populated the coast of the Levant from about 1200 B.C. to 146 B.C. These well-preserved shipwrecks open a new chapter in the archaeology and history of Phoenician shipping and seafaring. They reveal the deep-sea routes the Phoenicians sailed in the eastern Mediterranean, the size and types of cargoes they carried, the ports they visited, and their trading partners. For the first time, it is possible to evaluate how accurate ancient artistic renditions and literary accounts of these ancient mariners really are.

The expedition was sponsored in part by the National Geographic Society, the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research, and Leon Levy. Expedition team members included Dana Yoerger and Hanumant Singh of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, David Mindell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Shelley Wachsmann of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, and Louis Whitcomb of Johns Hopkins University.

The National Geographic Society (NGS) is the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization. Founded in 1888 for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge, the Society reflects the world through magazines, books, maps, television, and interactive media. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, the official journal of the Society, is sent to nearly 10 million members each month and is read in every country in the world. The Society has funded more than 6,500 scientific research projects and supports an education program to foster geographic literacy.

Since its launch in September 1997, the National Geographic Channel—a business enterprise between National Geographic Television (NGT), NBC, and Fox Entertainment Group—has become one of the world’s fastest growing channels. The Channel now broadcasts in nine languages to over 42 million homes in 55 countries around the world.