Turkish officials announced Sept. 28 that divers have recovered thousands of luxury ceramic dishes from a 2,100‑year‑old shipwreck off the coast of Turkey, the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
AA and images released with the announcement show ceramic plates and bowls scattered across the seabed. Officials said the wreck lies about 138 to 180 feet below the surface and that researchers believe the ship was traveling from Rhosus to Rome when it struck a shallow area during a storm and sank, AA reported.
The recovered artifacts include 122 different forms and sizes of plates, bowls and trays, including dishes used for nuts, soup and fish, AA reported. The agency said the ceramics are believed to have originated in Rhosus, a production center mentioned in the writings of the Roman statesman Cicero, though AA noted there is no evidence the recovered dishes belonged to Cicero himself.
Taco Terpstra, a professor of classics and history at Northwestern University, told Fox News Digital that the find is “quite rare.” Terpstra said coins recovered aboard the ship help researchers date the wreck and that the pottery can be traced to a production region in what is now southern Turkey and northern Syria.
Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the ceramics were remarkably well preserved because clay had been packed between them before they were placed in wooden crates, a detail AA highlighted in its report.
Fox News noted that Cicero’s writings later influenced the U.S. Founding Fathers, and Fox’s report attributed the interpretations from experts and Turkish officials to AA and to interviews conducted for the story.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
