Oct 6, 2010 15:02 GMT  ·  By

A team of investigators believes that by studying a millennia-old shipwreck, they may get some insight into how ancient civilizations used trading and shipping routes in the Mediterranean Sea.

The remnants belong to a ship that is estimated to have sunk around the 4th century BC, which makes it more than 2,300 years old. By all accounts, it was a merchant vessel, archaeologists say.

The discovery of the ship in itself took place back in 2006, when divers discovered it on the seafloor south of the island of Cyprus, in the Mediterranean Sea.

After the finding was made, teams of archaeologists flocked to the site, and started an ample process of excavating and cataloging the site of the ancient disaster.

Their work was made difficult by the fact that they had to carry out all of the maneuvers while submerged under water, hooked to oxygen lines, or carrying cumbersome oxygen tanks.

However, their effort was very successful, given the amount of artifacts they were able to dredge up from the bottom of the sea. The very conclusion that this was a merchant ship is based on the large number of amphora that were found.

These objects were most likely used to transport wine, the experts say. In addition to these small objects, the investigators also found one of the ship's anchors.

In a new research paper, which contains most of the discoveries made at the site in the past four years, researchers say that the shape and size of most of the amphora gave them a good idea of what the ship looked like.

“We know by having studied a lot of these ceramic containers – we have created catalogs with different shapes – we know where they come from and where they date,” explains expert Stella Demesticha.

She holds an appointment as a professor of maritime archeology at the University of Cyprus, and she is also the leader of the research efforts.

By carefully analyzing the amphora, her team was able to determine that the objects mostly likely originated in the Aegean Sea area, on the Greek island of Chios.

“We know the red wine from Chios was praised. It was very good quality, very expensive,” the team leader shares for LiveScience.

“There's a lot to learn from this wreck. We know that wine commerce was flourishing in antiquity. But because we haven't excavated many shipwrecks, we don't know many details about how exactly this was happening,” Demesticha adds.

The expert concluded by saying that the site where the ship sank is an indicator that Greece was trading with Turkey. This is an aspect of ancient life in the area that researchers still know very little about.