Uluburun: The Bronze Age's Richest Shipwreck. Nobody Can Say Whose It Was.

In the summer of 1982, a Turkish sponge diver surfaced with a strange report: metal biscuits with ears, fifty meters down. What lay on that slope was the richest cargo the Bronze Age ever lost. Ten tons of Cypriot copper and a ton of tin, in exactly the ratio bronze demands. The oldest intact glass ingots ever found. African ebony, Baltic amber, elephant ivory, and a gold scarab bearing the name of Nefertiti. Eleven years and 22,413 dives brought it all up, and the cargo maps at least seven civilizations across the known world. Yet after four decades of scholarship, nobody can say whose ship it was, or whether it carried commerce or a king's gift. Chapters: 0:00 Fifty meters down 0:22 Metal biscuits with ears 1:17 The manifest 4:05 The people in the cargo 6:30 Commerce or a king's gift 9:21 What the sea kept Go deeper: Beneath the Seven Seas: Adventures with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (George F. Bass): https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beneath+the+sev... (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Four sets of merchant weights say a working trade run. A queen's gold scarab and fine ivories say a royal gift between courts. The evidence has held both readings for forty years. Which way does the cargo argue for you? Make your case below. #history #ancienthistory #documentary #archaeology #bronzeage #shipwreck