A cargo ship that went down off Adrasan, on the Mediterranean coast of Antalya province, around 2,100 years ago is yielding a remarkable haul of tableware, Türkiye's Culture and Tourism Ministry announced on Sept. 28.
Archaeologists have brought up thousands of ceramic pieces, including plates, bowls and trays in 122 different shapes and sizes. Among them are dishes for nuts, soup bowls, fish plates and serving trays. Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said on social media that the assemblage reveals "the luxury dining culture of the period."
The wreck lies between 42 and 55 meters below the surface. A team from Akdeniz University led by underwater archaeologist Hakan Öniz first located it in 2023 during a survey of the seabed near Adrasan, and excavation began in 2025. Underwater robots now support the divers working at that depth.
From Rhosus to Rome
Most of the plates and bowls are thought to have been made in Rhosus, a port whose site lies in today's Arsuz district of Hatay province. According to the ministry, wares from Rhosus were in particular demand in Rome. The Roman statesman Cicero mentioned them in a letter to his friend Atticus in 50 B.C., noting that he had ordered vessels from the town for himself.
The ship also carried amphorae believed to come from Aegean islands, which suggests it loaded goods from several production centers. Coins from Antioch dating to the 1st century B.C. have helped narrow the date of the sinking to around the middle of that century.
Researchers believe the vessel set out from Rhosus and was heading for Rome as part of a trade network linking Antioch, the Aegean, Greece and the Italian coast. It probably ran onto hidden shallows during a storm. A 2023 paper by Öniz and Düzce University archaeologist Emre Okan in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology first set out this route.
Packed in clay
One reason so much survived is the way the cargo was stowed. The ceramics were packed into wooden crates with clay pressed between the stacked pieces, cushioning them as the ship went down and through more than two millennia on the seabed. Ersoy said the finds preserve evidence of Anatolia's production expertise and of Mediterranean trading history.
Excavation of the wreck is continuing, with the Akdeniz University team relying on underwater robots to work at depth.
Sources
- 2,100-year-old luxury tableware unearthed from ancient shipwreck off Türkiye – Anadolu Agency
- Adrasan Açıklarındaki 2.100 Yıllık Batıktan Sofra Takımları Çıkıyor – Arkeofili
Photo: Dosseman / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
