In 2015, two members of an Israeli kibbutz near Haifa spotted some intriguing wreckage off the coast. The ship was rapidly retaken by sand until the University of Haifa managed to launch excavations in 2016.
Not only was the ship 1,300 years old, but it had both Christian and Muslim inscriptions within.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the university’s Institute for Maritime Studies has gained invaluable insight into the region’s cultural life at the time. The 85-foot ship yielded 103 Greco-Roman jars (or amphorae) filled with agricultural products and well-preserved Greek and Arabic writing.
Published in the Near Eastern Archaeology journal, the findings detail how much has been learned about the transition between Byzantine and Islamic rule, ship construction, and the standardized ship routes of the time.
The chance discovery by Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael members has made this find all the more remarkable, as this is officially the largest maritime cargo collection of Byzantine and early Islamic pottery ever found in Israel.