Description and Analysis of the Finds from the 2006 Turkish Coastal Survey: Marmaris and Bodrum

Abstract

In the summer of 2006, RPM Nautical Foundation continued its survey along the south-western Turkish coast. After completing the verification of anomalies along the south-east Bozburun peninsula close to Marmaris, a new survey was conducted along the coast near Bodrum. Additional shipwrecks were discovered, those of historic interest ranging in date from Roman Republican to Ottoman. This report describes the shipwreck sites and some of the random finds along the Bozburun coast, as well as the depositional characteristics in the Bodrum approaches.

At the Transition from Late Medieval to Early Modern: the Archaeology of Three Wrecks from Turkey

“…In the second field season, a large wreck‐site was discovered at 87 m depth near the promontory protecting the small bay of Gerbekse (Royal, 2008a: 93–5). It consists of an elongated mound c .25–30 m long and 8–9 m wide and exhibits a wide variety of artefacts (Fig.…”

“…The remains of crossbows are preserved amidships (Fig. 15), four of them grouped in sector 7 (Royal, 2008a: 93). The remains constitute the curved, bow portion of the weapon, as well as the stock and foot‐stirrup (pers.…”

“…To find a high percentage of armed vessels from a narrow historical period clustered along the same stretch of Turkish coastline within the Rhodian Straits invites an analysis of the coastal geography and strategic context of those Straits, as well as the specific nature and assemblage of each site. Although two of the wreck‐sites (TK05–AB and TK05–AH) have been previously reported, and the third (TK06–AD) described in a preliminary report (Royal, 2006; 2008a), it is appropriate, for a variety of reasons, to offer scholars a review of the first two wrecks, together with new comparative material, and a full description of the third, as the extensive assemblage of site TK06–AD has not yet been published systematically. The clustering of the three vessels in space and time is significant.…”