During a survey of the Mediterranean seafloor about 55 miles off the coast of Israel, the international energy company Energean happened upon a remarkable find: a shipwreck dating to the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE). The Energean crew were conducting their survey using cameras on a submersible, which enabled them to see the seafloor via the computer screens on their ship at the surface. When the crew glimpsed an enormous mound of half-buried storage jars—all that was visible of the sunken remains—they contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which identified the jars as Canaanite amphorae. Although the IAA is […]
