American Journal of Archaeology

106.2

Iron Age Shipwrecks in Deep Water off Ashkelon, Israel

Robert D. Ballard, Lawrence E. Stager, Daniel Master, Dana Yoerger, David Mindell, Louis L. Whitcomb, Hanumant Singh, and Dennis Piechota

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Mosaic of the Elissa Shipwreck

In 1997, two shipwrecks were first discovered in the Mediterranean Sea west of Israel by the U.S. Navy\'s research Submarine NR-1. Further investigation in 1999 with the remotely operated vehicle system Medea/Jason found the wrecks to be from the eighth century B.C., the earliest known shipwrecks to be found in the deep sea. Both ships appear to be of Phoenician origin, laden with cargoes of fine wine destined for either Egypt or Carthage, when they were lost in a storm on the high seas. The ships lie upright on the seafloor at a depth of 400 m in a depression formed by the scour of bottom currents. Their discovery suggests that ancient mariners took direct routes to their destinations even if it meant traveling beyond sight of land.

Author bios

Volume 106 No. 2
April 2002

Articles

Tracking the Samnites: landscape and communications routes in the Sangro Valley, Italy
Tyler Bell, Andrew Wilson, and Andrew Wickham

A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek World
John K. Papadopoulos and Deborah Ruscillo

Proceedings

The 103rd Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America

Necrology

Michael Lazare Katzev (1939-2001)
George F. Bass

Review Articles

Etruscan Mirrors Now
Nancy T. de Grummond

Straight From the Bottle: Rural Life in Roman Africa
Jennifer P. Moore

Book Reviews

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Books Received

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