One and a half tons of ingots found at the site of the oldest shipwreck off the coast of Turkey

(ORDO NEWS) — An underwater archaeological excavation at a Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Turkey has unearthed two lead weights and a ton and a half of copper ingots, Arkeonews reports.

According to scientists, the 3,600-year-old cargo was discovered in Kumluk, the site of one of the oldest shipwrecks in history, which occurred around 1600 BC off the coast of the southern Turkish province of Antalya. The shipwreck, 14 meters long, lying at a depth of 50 meters, was found in 2018.

Experts have established that the copper ingots lying on the ship were cast in the mines of Cyprus in the 15th-16th centuries BC, when copper was a very valuable commodity.

As scientists recall, in those days Egypt was the dominant power in the region, and, according to archaeologists, copper ingots could serve as a tribute paid to the Egyptians by other states, such as Cyprus.

The discovered ship may turn out to be the oldest merchant ship known to science that carried industrial cargo. The cause of the shipwreck, as expected, could be a powerful storm.

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