Yenikapı Byzantine Shipwrecks Excavation and Study - Turkey

The Yenikapı site, located in the Istanbul neighborhood of the same name, was first revealed in 2004 during the construction of a subterranean rail line and station for a new rail link between Europe and Asia. Archaeologists from the Istanbul Archaeological Museums quickly realized they were looking at the ancient harbor of Theodosius, one of Constantinople's trade harbors, built during the reign of Theodosius (AD 379-395). A major trade center from the 4th century until river silt filled it in around 1500, the harbor, its stone walls, and amazingly well-preserved remnants of the port’s activities lay forgotten for centuries.

Between 2004 and 2008 the site was one of the world’s largest archaeological digs. Each day, hundreds of laborers dug under the direction of the Istanbul Archeological Museums. Yenikapı’s wet soils have revealed everything from the foundations of wattle-and-daub mud huts from the Chalcolithic period (4500 to 3500 BC) to elegant Ottoman structures, and myriad artifacts ranging from wooden combs and Byzantine leather shoes to the bones of hard-worked dockside horses and camels, and human skulls that may have come from criminals whose severed heads were tossed in the harbor.

Archaeologists also found an always-increasing number of ship remains and anchors from what was once the harbor floor. As of 2008, the remains of 32 separate vessels dating from the 5th to the 11th centuries had emerged from the mud. The first archaeological examples of Byzantine rowed ships—perhaps warships—as well as merchant vessels, some with cargoes, lay preserved thanks to their burial in a thick layer of wet mud.

Istanbul Archaeological Museums turned to Istanbul University’s Conservation Department to deal with most of the ship remains, but eight hulls dating from the 7th to the 11th centuries were turned over to INA Vice President and Texas A&M University professor Cemal Pulak. With his characteristic attention to detail and meticulous scholarship, Cemal, archaeologist Sheila Matthews and a hard working team of INA staff and Texas A&M graduate students worked for over two years in the heat and mud of the active construction site in tent-covered pits to document and carefully recover the ship remains. While many of the timbers are well preserved, with original tool marks and intricate detail, they can also be very fragile, with the consistency of wet cardboard. It makes the job even more challenging, and yet the patience and persistence of Cemal’s team made a difference.

The Yenikapı dig was most likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with a diverse collection of hulls from this period. It also means that in time, after analysis, the work at Yenikapı will rewrite the book on Byzantine shipbuilding as well as the role of maritime trade in the history of Constantinople and the later Roman Empire.

Read more about the documentation of these shipwrecks in the Summer 2010 Issue of the INA Quarterly (p. 21).

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Yenikapı Byzantine Shipwrecks Excavation and Study - Turkey

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