Pabuç Burnu, Turkey
Period - 6th century BC
Depth - 42 - 45 m (139 - 149 ft)
Found by - Selim Dincer
Excavation - 2002 - 03
Number of hours on wreck - 921.4
Amphoras onboard ship - c 200
Hull - c 20 m (65 ft) long
"'Is it really a shipwreck?' photographer Don Frey wondered aloud. Don had just surfaced from an exploratory dive to investigate a scatter of ceramics reported by Turkish diver Selim Dincer. Intact and broken amphoras, or two-handled storage jars, dotted the sloping surface of the seabed 40 m (132 ft) underwater off the coast of Pabuç Burnu. “Shoe Point,” shaped like a curved sandal, lies about 35 km (21 miles) from Bodrum, the site of ancient Halicarnassus, where the tomb built by King Mausolus became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world."
"George Bass, director of the 2001 survey, felt sure it was a wreck when, from the submersible Carolyn, he watched Mutlu Gunay lift an amphora from the sand, revealing a nearly intact wine pitcher beneath. These must mark more than the cargo jettisoned from a ship in distress. The team’s spirits rose higher after Mark Lawall, an amphora expert at the University of Manitoba, dated an emailed photograph of one of the jars to the mid-6th century BC. No shipwreck from the Archaic Period, which laid the foundation for the glory of Classical Greece, had ever been excavated in the Eastern Mediterranean!" - Elizabeth Greene
Source
Greene, Elizabeth. "An Archaic Ship Finally Reaches Port: Pabuç Burnu, Turkey," in "Beneath the Seven Seas," edited by George F. Bass, pp. 59-63. New York and London, 2005.
Additional Resources
Liz recovers a small bowl from beneath the rock ledge. (Photo by S.Matthews)