Nefertiti and the Uluburun Shipwreck

<p>Or, the Life Aquatic with Gold Scarabs... Around 1325 BCE (estimates vary) a vessel sank near the cape of <strong>Uluburun</strong>, Turkey. The cargo was immense: twenty tonnes of goods, including copper, ivory, ornamental objects, spices, and more. Amid the finds, a curious item came to light: a gold scarab, bearing the name <strong>Neferneferuaten Nefertiti</strong>... What was a Nefertiti scarab doing on a trade ship, far from Egypt? And what do the finds tell us about the ship, its crew, and ancient trade?</p><br><p>The Uluburun Shipwreck:</p><ul><li>Date: c.1325 BCE (estimated).</li><li>Cultures: Multiple, including Egyptian, Canaanite, Syrian, and Mycenaean.</li><li>Ship destination: Possibly the Aegean, western Anatolia, or even the Balkans.</li><li>Logo image: Divers working on the Uluburun wreck, via The Institute of Nautical Archaeology <a href="https://nauticalarch.org/projects/uluburun-late-bronze-age-shipwreck-excavation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a>.</li><li>Catalogue of objects in <em>Beyond Babylon</em>, 2008. <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Beyond_Babylon_Art_Trade_and_Diplomacy_in_the_Second_Millenium_BC" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Free pdf from MMA</a>.</li><li>Image gallery at The Institute of Nautical Archaeology <a href="https://nauticalarch.org/projects/uluburun-late-bronze-age-shipwreck-excavation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a>.</li><li>Artefacts in the Bodrum museum, on <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/uluburun/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Flickr.com</a>.</li><li>Miscellaneous items, at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Uluburun_shipwreck" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikimedia</a>.</li><li>A replica of the ship, Uluburun II, at <a href="https://www.uw360.asia/uluburun-oldest-shipwreck-in-the-world/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Underwater360</a>.</li><li>A lecture by Cemal Pulak, one of the lead excavators. <a href="https://youtu.be/xz1eiAY18EY?t=60" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>References:</p><ul><li>G. Bass et al., ‘The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 Campaign’, <em>American Journal of Archaeology</em> 93 (1989), 1–29.</li><li>C. M. Monroe, ‘Sunk Costs at Late Bronze Age Uluburun’, <em>Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research</em> 357 (2010), 19–33.</li><li>C. Pulak, ‘Analysis of the Weight Assemblages from the Late Bronze Age Shipwrecks at Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya, Turkey, Volume I’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Texas A&M University (1996).</li><li>C. Pulak, ‘The Uluburun Shipwreck: An Overview’, <em>The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology</em> 27 (1998), 188–224.</li><li>C. Pulak, ‘The Uluburun Shipwreck and Late Bronze Age Trade’, in <em>Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.</em> (2008), 289–310. Book available free, from the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Beyond_Babylon_Art_Trade_and_Diplomacy_in_the_Second_Millenium_BC" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a>.</li><li>C. Pulak, ‘Uluburun Shipwreck’, in <em>The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean</em> (2012), 863—876.</li><li>C. Pulak, lecture on <a href="https://youtu.be/xz1eiAY18EY?t=60" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.</li><li>J. Weinstein, ‘The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun: 1986 Campaign, Part 3: The Gold Scarab of Nefertiti from Ulu Burun: Its Implications for Egyptian History and Egyptian-Aegean Relations’, <em>American Journal of Archaeology</em> 93 (1989), 17–29.</li></ul><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

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