www.ancient-origins.net
Almonds, Pottery and Wood Help Accurately Date Famed Kyrenia Shipwreck
Cornell University
Researchers have identified the likeliest timeline of the famous Hellenistic-era Kyrenia shipwreck, discovered and recovered off the north coast of Cyprus in the 1960s.
Historic shipwrecks often evoke dreams of sunken riches waiting on the bottom of the ocean to be reclaimed. For the Cornell researchers trying to date the famous Hellenistic-era Kyrenia shipwreck, which was discovered and recovered off the north coast of Cyprus in the 1960s, the real treasure was not gold coins, but thousands of almonds found in jars among the cargo.
The almonds, combined with newly cleaned wood samples and the team's modeling and radiocarbon-dating expertise, led the Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory to identify the likeliest timeline of the Kyrenia's sinking as between 296-271 BC, with a strong probability it occurred between 286-272 BC.
The team's paper, “A Revised Radiocarbon Calibration Curve 350-250 BC Impacts High-Precision Dating of the Kyrenia Ship,” was recently published in PLoS ONE. The lead author is Sturt Manning, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Classical Archaeology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Read moreSection: ArtifactsOther ArtifactsNewsHistory & ArchaeologyRead Later