Survey of a Greek Shipwreck off Kyrenia, Cyprus

Author/s Green, J.N., Hall, E.T. & Katzev, M.

Report Number: 234

Introduction
A shipwreck of Ihe fourth cenlUry S.C was localed off the north coast of Cyprus, near the harbour lawn of Kyrenia, by a joint team from Ihe University Museum of Ihe Universily of Pennsylvania ' and the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford. This discovery was made while conducting a search for ancient shipwrecks during the summer of 1967. Lying at a depth of 30 metres on a fiat, muddy sa nd bottom, the vis ible wreck consists of a mound of approximately one hundred amphorae. The amphorae a re stacked in a regular pa ttern, indicating that the mound is the sile of a sunken cargo, and not merely jettison. A remarkable feature of the amphora mound is its small size. only an area 3 x 5 metres was visible to the divers.

Three distinct types of amphorae lie within the wreck. The type which predominates (figure I) has been identified by Miss Virginia Grace of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Agora Excavation, as the earliest type of Rhodian amphora. The origin of the other two types is at present unknown.