The Camalti Burnu I Wreck excavation, which started in 1998, achieved its last field season in the summer of 2004. Although a scattering of wooden fragments was found as early as the 2000 excavation season, it was not until 2003 that substantial remains were located. According to Jay Rosslof, who was with us during the summer 2004, “the ship’s hull is badly preserved. At best, 3% of the vessel remains – mostly in the form of scattered scraps of wood not much larger than the nail-hole concretion they surround. The largest preserved area of hull was found under the upslope portion of the larger (western) amphora pile. Even here the planks were fragmentary and crushed, and the framing timbers eroded and dislocated. The hull inventory is limited to a meter of keel, a few frame segments, a short length of bilge wale, and the traceable remains of perhaps six strakes over as much as four meters. Regardless, we are able to glean basic construction information from these scant remains…”. The hull remains are now Istanbul University’s Department of Conservation and Restoration of Artifact. A more detailed study of the wood remains will certainly give us more information. Ufuk Kocabas was submitted his thesis about the work he was carrying on the iron anchors of the wreck, (Ufuk Kocabas, The Conservation, Replication and Study of the Iron Anchors of Camalti Burnu I Wreck within their Historical Context, University of Istanbul, 2005, Unpublished Doctoral Thesis). With my team members, and experts from different disciplines, we are now working on the findings to publish the final results of the excavation, and there is more reading to do about the historical context of the voyage. At the moment, I can only suggest that the cargo of wine found at Camalti Burnu may have belonged to a Byzantine monastery around on the Sea of Marmara and was lost while going to the Constantinople markets.

We shall let you know the further work done, as soon as we get the results.

For the latest bibliography about the excavation, please refer to; N. Gunsenin, “A 13 th -Century Wine Carrier : , Camalti Burnu, Turkey”, Archaeology Beneath the Seven Seas , ed. George Bass, Thames and Hudson, England, (2005), p. 118-123 and “An approach to 13 th -century shipbuilding : Camalti Burnu I Wreck, Marmara island”, IXth International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity , Tropis IX, Cyprus, in press.

Progress of the final publication

https://www.iha.com.tr/balikesir-haberleri/bizansin-mirasi-mercek-altinda-43340382

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V5PBUMkhHw

https://bandirmamanset.com/haber/bandirma_muzesinde_amfora_soylesisi-52604.html