Artifacts from oldest known shipwreck to go on display at Met

From Today's Zaman


Artifacts discovered in the wreckage of the world's oldest-known seafaring ship, discovered in 1982 near Uluburun on the southern coast of Turkey, are traveling to New York City this month for a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Artifacts from the Uluburun wreck will be featured in an extensive collection titled "Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.," set to go on public display on Nov. 18.

In addition to pieces from Uluburun, the show will feature nearly 350 objects coming from places such as royal palaces, temples and tombs, highlighting a sophisticated network of interaction among kings, diplomats and merchants in the Near East at the time.

It will begin with the Middle Bronze Age, in which a rising elite class sought valuable objects in foreign lands along with the objects from Babylon in Mesopotamia.

It will continue with the palatial centers of the Late Bronze Age -- including the sites of Qatna and Ugarit in Syria, featuring Aegean-style wall paintings, royal archives and an intact royal tomb.