Well-preserved Roman ship found off Crimean coast

A wooden ship found in the depths of the Black Sea, is more than 2,000 years old, according to experts.

Credit: Sky News

The Roman vessel, dates back to the 2nd or 3rd centuries and could have been used as a merchant ship, senior researcher Viktor Lebedinsky told Russian news agency TASS .

He said: "The discovered vessel, presumably dating back to the 2nd or 3rd centuries, rests at the depth of 85 meters and this is a wooden carcass."

The discovery was made by the Neptune expedition, sponsored by the fund of Russian presidential grants on the project "Crimea, the Crossroads of Civilizations".

The expedition aims to examine various objects already spotted by archaeologists at the Black Sea and search for new artefacts. It has more than 30 members, sonar operators and divers.

The scientists found an iron anchor which allowed them to make conclusions about the historic period.

Mr Lebedinsky added that at the scene of the shipwreck, there is a big mast with the diameter of more than half a meter.

"The size of the discovered object is 22 meters long and 6 meters wide, what conforms to the size and proportions of the so-called "round ships" used during the Roman era as merchant vessels," he said.

The archaeologists are surveying the site to find out when the ship sank.

Author: Kelly-Ann Mills | Source: Mirror [August 12, 2018]