By God, we have a good president, to be sure. And, in my opinion, not even by the way he presides, but by the fact that … he behaves like a normal person, that is, he takes everything from life that he can and is not ashamed of it. I had the opportunity to fly on combat aircraft - I flew, dive on a bathyscaphe to the bottom of Lake Baikal - I dived. And now he sank to the bottom of the Black Sea and looked at the remains of a 10th century ship and a whole bunch of amphorae! Not every day this is possible, is it ?! In my opinion, it's just interesting to see an ancient ship at the bottom of the sea. But now "the matter is small": to raise it from the bottom of the sea and restore it in its proper form. There is such experience! This is the vessel "Vaza", which has lain at the bottom of the Baltic since the 17th century, and the English ship "Mary Rose", but on the island of Cyprus there is perhaps the most unusual replica of an ancient ship, made on the basis of an ancient Greek merchant ship found at the bottom of the sea!
The ship had to see where it was sailing. Therefore, the Greeks always drew eyes on both military and merchant ships! Thalassa Museion, Ayia Napa, Republic of Cyprus.
Even here in Russia, a country quite far from Greece, probably everyone knows how the ancient Greek ships looked in general. After all, they were also drawn in our textbook on the history of the Ancient World. In addition, there are drawings of them both on the Internet and in books. So this is not a curiosity. Archaeologists have met their images on ceramic vases, but it is impossible to find out from them how they were arranged, as well as from what materials they were built at that time far from us. Finally, what was transported by merchant, and not military, ships sailing between the islands of the Aegean and the Mediterranean? Well - apparently nature itself has made sure that we find out about all this, although perhaps not everything has been found out …
Kyrenia II - this is how the whole ship looks like. Thalassa Museion, Ayia Napa, Republic of Cyprus.
Dive in and find!
It is clear that if you wanted to find the remains of an ancient Greek ship, you should look for them where they once sailed, that is, somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. But the sea is great! The traces of shipwrecks were covered with sand, so, having gone down under the water, you will hardly be able to find them right away. However, there is nothing impossible in this! So in 1967, Cypriot diver Andreas Kariolou found an ancient sunken ship. Then scientists spent two whole years trying to fix the location of each object under water. After all, it was very important to know exactly how exactly each part of the ship was connected to another. Otherwise, how to connect them into one whole? Since it is impossible to lift the wreckage of an ancient ship like this right away. A tree that has been under water for thousands of years becomes fragile. Employees of the Pennsylvania Museum from the United States undertook to help the Greeks, and together they managed to free the remains of the ship from the sand and raise them to the surface, together with the cargo. There they carried out their conservation, which was necessary to rid the tree of the excess content of sea salt. Moreover, it was required not to dry it out and preserve this sea vessel - the oldest among all those found on Earth - for posterity!
Ancient anchor stones.
The old tree tells
The research of the ship (or rather what was left of it, but not so much remained!) Began with the analysis of the wood that was used for its construction. Then it turned out that it had been sailing for about 80 years before the shipwreck, that is, it was a kind of long-liver, although it was wooden! The cargo consisted of amphorae and containers with almonds, and the most accurate date of its death was established according to it - 288 BC. NS. That is, it happened that this year a small ship loaded with millstones and a load of amphorae (400 amphorae in total!) Left the port of Kyrenia on the island of Cyprus. Immediately after that, a storm began and it crashed near the harbor. The crew of the ship during this ill-fated voyage, according to scientists, consisted of four people, which is confirmed by four bowls and four spoons found on board, and before visiting the island of Cyprus, it was engaged in coastal voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. The sailors ate fish and almonds, and, of course, they all washed down with wine from the same amphorae. Maybe they just got drunk with it, why there was a violation of the safety rules of navigation, or the ship … was attacked by pirates ?! So he sank. However, the archaeologists did not find the skeletons of the crew at the crash site, so one can hope that the sailors from it tried to escape by swimming and survived!
And this is how the load of amphorae was located on it. Only there were many more!
Grain was stored in such amphoras in Cyprus. In the girl that stands nearby for a scale of 152 cm. Archaeological Museum in Larnaca
When politics is against history!
It also turned out that the ship's hull was made of pine, it was only 15 meters long, so 400 amphorae and 29 millstones (although they most likely took them as ballast) were an overwhelming burden for him. That is, it could simply drown in a strong wind when it was overwhelmed by waves. At the same time, such a small size made it possible to build this ship anew and see how it could be, well, at least on the basis of drawings on the same Greek vases. After all, scientists already knew how it was arranged from the inside.
Kyrenia-II - general view.
Work on a replica of the ship began in 1970 and went on for several years until it was made. But here modern politics intervened in the history of the past in the most dramatic way. Turkish troops landed on Cyprus … A fratricidal war began, and it all ended with the island being divided into two parts: the northern, unrecognized republic of Northern Cyprus, where Turkish troops are still located today, and in the museum of the Venetian fortress in the port of Kyrenia, the remains of this ship are in the Museum Shipwrecks, and the southern one - the Republic of Cyprus. You can get to the north side either through Turkey or from the southern part of the island, including on a regular sightseeing bus.
Steering oars device.
My opportunities, of course, are not presidential, but I could not help but see with my own eyes the oldest ship in the world (then they found an even more ancient one, but this was also reconstructed!), Once in Cyprus, I could not in any way. And drove north! In the Venetian fortress, the hall with the remains of the ship is the coolest room in the museum, and its hull is kept there at constant temperature and humidity, which can be bypassed and examined. However, his replica, made on the basis of all its wreckage, is absent in this museum! So if you are vacationing in Northern Cyprus, to see it, you will have to go south, and vice versa - from south to north, if you want to admire not the layout, but the original!
And this is what remains of this ship looks like in the museum in the Venetian fortress in Kyrenia. You have to shoot through the glass, so the quality of the pictures is not very high.
A whole bunch of amphorae just like that lay at the bottom of the sea …
Everything is exactly the same as Homer's!
In the town of Ayia Napa, which means "Holy Forest" in Russian, in the local, very small, but stylish building "Talassa Museion" - that is, in the maritime museum, you will see this ship. However, before going to the ship itself, be sure to inspect the museum itself, as it is quite interesting, although the ship, of course, for a history buff, overshadows all these dried turtles and stuffed fish, because it looks exactly as described by Homer …
By the way, for fans of tabletop modeling of ships made of wood, the Chinese company Shicheng model has released an excellent model of this ship at a scale of 1:43 with all the details of the set and hull cut out by a laser!
The vessel is called "Kyrenia II" because the original remained on the Turkish side. In addition to a replica of this ship, the very same amphorae for wine and grain that were on board, anchor stones with holes for pointed stakes, and … a morion helmet, which belonged to the Venetians, who once settled in Cyprus, are exhibited here. There is also a copy of the "papirella" - a reed Greek boat from the Mesolithic period (9200 BC). And it turns out that not only the Indians from Lake Titicaca and the ancient Egyptians used papyrus and reed vessels. Even in time immemorial, Cypriots also did not disdain this material, that is, it was a common tradition!
Pirell's boat
The ship is placed in the museum in such a way that it can be walked around in a circle and inspected from all sides, and even look inside to it through its open deck from above. It had a mast and a sail, but without oars, since the Greeks had only battle ships that were oars. Two large oars at the back are steering oars. Deflecting them in different directions, the helmsman just controlled such a ship. It is known that high-quality pine wood was used for the hull of the ship and, apparently, it was on such and such ships that the inhabitants of Cyprus in the past let their luxurious forests, from which now there is nothing left at all. All wooden parts of the vessel were covered with a special varnish, which protected them from water and larvae. Moreover, the ship is indeed "black-sided", that is, the same as the Greek ships described by Homer, which suggests that the traditions of shipbuilding at that time were changing very slowly.
Once upon a time, local residents built their ships from such sycamore trees. And now they are paying with drought for the cleared forests.
Of course, it's a pity that such an archaeological find is divided in this way: the original is in the north, and its replica is in the south. These are the real and dramatic consequences of military conflicts for both people and history. Moreover, neither the Greeks nor the Turks want to concede, so it is unlikely that both of these historical monuments will unite in the foreseeable future. So if you are vacationing on the island of Cyprus, try to visit at least one of these two museums. After all, there you will see one of the most ancient sea vessels, the fate of which, no matter what scientists say there, we can only guess today!
However, now it is no longer the most ancient ship in the Mediterranean Sea, discovered by underwater archaeologists. Since that time, several other vessels have been discovered under water, including those with a cargo of amphorae. The oldest ship we know of was found in a ship "graveyard" off the coast of Asia Minor near the Yassidzha reef - it sank about three thousand years ago.
Interestingly, in 2002, construction began on the Kyrenia Liberty (at that time already the third copy of the Kyrenia ship). The construction proceeded in compliance with the fundamentals of the structure, but using modern technology. The ship was completed for the 2004 Olympic Games and sailed to Athens with a symbolic shipment of copper, from which the Olympic bronze medals were cast.
