Titanic finder discovers ancient ships

RELATED VIDEO CNN's Tammy Hotchkiss reports researchers believe cargo ships were transporting wine 27 hundred years ago. Windows Media 28K 80K

June 25, 1999
Web posted at: 3:59 p.m. EDT (1959 GMT)

(CNN) -- The same deep-sea explorers who discovered the Titanic have found an ancient time capsule off the coast of Israel -- two well-preserved Phoenician ships dating from about 750 B.C.

The ships were carrying about 10 tons of wine each when it is believed they sank in a violent storm in the Mediterranean Sea about 2,700 years ago. They were found in remarkable condition, sitting upright in about 1,500 feet of water.

"The great depths that exist in the oceans, the absence of sunlight, the great pressures seem to preserve history far more than we thought," said Robert Ballard, who headed up the search effort.

The researchers were able to date the vessels by the mushroom-shaped lips on the large ceramic jugs used to carry the wine, a Phoenician signature.

"Rarely, if ever, you find this (type of jug) on land complete. Even if they are more or less complete they have all been shattered," Ballard said. "You have to put them together to make up the whole. Out here, the whole shipload of them intact. It's marvelous!"

Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, believed the cargo ships were transporting wine from the Phoenician city of Tyre, now in Lebanon, to Egypt or the Phoenician city of Carthage, in present-day Tunisia.

Also found were stone anchors, crockery and incense stands for offering prayers to the weather gods.

The ancient vessels were found by an underwater robot - the same robot used to find Titanic -- put in the sea off the coast of Israel, with the aid of modern-day technology and a global positioning satellite.

The longest ship, at 60-feet, is the largest pre-classical vessel ever discovered. Older ships have been found in recent years, but they were in shallower waters and were less well preserved.

Ballard's team has no plans to raise the latest discoveries out of the sea, but researchers did recover 15 large wine jugs from each vessel. They will be taken to Harvard University researchers for further study.

Ballard says the answers to many ancient mysteries may be found at sea, at depths unreachable until now.

"It's inevitable that all the great ships will be found someday," he says.

CNN Headline News Correspondent Tammy Hotchkiss contributed to this report.

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