THE "GREEK SAILING SHIP OF KYRENIA"
A UNIQUE DISCOVERY
Ancient shipwrecks have been found all over the Mediterranean Sea. There is a series of known shipwrecks that stretches chronologically from the 3rd millennium B.C (the Dokos shipwreck) to our own day. Every ancient seafaring people has had its share in this. These shipwrecks are Greek, Phoenician, Etruscan, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Crusader ships. In most of these shipwrecks almost nothing has survived. The few parts of the ships that have been studied have yielded valuable but incomplete information about the methods of ancient shipbuilders. In this context the importance of the "Kyrenia Ship" is enormous because it is the bestpreserved ship of the Classical period of Greek civilization that has been found to date.
The evidence we have about the building and design of ancient Greek ships is scanty. There are no remnants of merchant vessels of the 4th century B.C that have been recovered and there are not many significant representations of such ships in ancient art.
The "Kyrenia Ship" is unique because an almost complete merchant ship has been conserved beneath a cargo of amphorae and a protective layer of sand. The ship was built in the middle of the 4th century and was in operation until the end of that century. Its total length was about 15 metres and 75% of the ship has been preserved. The keel, planks, the frames, the lead sheathing and other parts of the ship have been recovered, thus adding invaluable information to our knowledge of ancient shipbuilding.
HIPNT, "Anancient ship sails again", Pireus,1982, p.11</P>