CNN —
A lone diver first laid eyes on the ancient Kyrenia shipwreck off the north coast of Cyprus nearly 60 years ago. But when archaeologists attempted to determine the exact timeline of the vessel coming to a rest on the ocean floor, they were left to speculate based on the ship’s cargo.
Now, a new study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One may have a better time estimate of the Kyrenia’s demise — and the revelation came together thanks to newly cleaned wood samples from the ship, as well as clues provided by a twig, an animal bone and a cache of ancient almonds.
Local diver Andreas Cariolou first discovered the Kyrenia ship, one of the first major Greek Hellenistic-period ships to be found largely intact, in 1965, and a team led by the late marine archaeologist Michael Katzev excavated the wreck and its cargo in the late ’60s.
The researchers originally believed the vessel sank around 300 BC. One text, the first volume of the site’s final reports published in 2022, estimated a range of 294 BC to 290 BC, based on pottery and some coins found on board. But there was no scientific dating available to back up the estimates, according to the latest study.