Using an updated radio-dating technique, researchers have more precisely determined the date of the last voyage of the “ship of Kyrenia”, considered the best-preserved ancient ship in the eastern Mediterranean.

The ship was discovered in 1965 off the coast of Cyprus and is considered a “key” to the study of ancient Greek shipbuilding.
Archaeological evidence dated the ship’s last voyage to around 300 BC, however previous radio-dating attempts did not match this data.

In the new research, published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, the authors used new tree ring samples and modern techniques to revise the calibration data for the period between 433-250 BC.

Applying this updated radiocarbon dating technique to materials from the Kyrenia ship and its final cargo, the researchers, led by Stert Manning of Cornell University and the Cyprus Institute, found that the ship’s final voyage is dated around 280 BC, slightly later than previous estimates.

The skeleton of the ship “Kerynia” shortly after the reassembly of the timbers recovered during the excavation of the seabed.

They also applied the same technique to the Mazotos shipwreck and estimated that it made its last voyage around 370 BC, again slightly later than previous research suggests.

The researchers emphasize the importance of continuous revision of the radiocarbon calibration data.

As noted, precise radiodating is correlated with tree-ring dates of known age in order to correct for errors caused by variation in atmospheric carbon over time.