Underwater archaeological excavations off the coast of Kaş have uncovered 15 glass perfume bottles dating back 1,000 to 1,100 years, believed to be from an Eastern Mediterranean trade vessel, according to Hakan Öniz, head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Restoration at Akdeniz University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.
The discovery was part of the Heritage for the Future Project, which has identified 411 shipwrecks along Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast with permission from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The perfume bottles, each measuring 6 to 7 centimeters, were exhibited for the first time at the International Archaeology Symposium and the Golden Age of Archaeology Exhibition at the Presidential National Library, attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Öniz told Anadolu Agency (AA) that underwater archaeology in Türkiye dates back to the Ottoman era, not the 1960s, crediting Osman Hamdi Bey, then director of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, with launching the first such research in the 1890s at Farmakonisi (now Bulamaç Island).
“This science began in Anatolia about 140 years ago,” Öniz said. “We are the successors applying it today with modern technology.”
The perfume bottles were recovered from a wreck near Kaş-Besmi, a ship that likely departed from Gaza in Palestine and carried amphorae filled with olive oil. The bottles, made with a mold-melting technique typical of the Syria-Palestine region, are thought to have contained rose oil, musk or amber.
“At that time, Europe did not have a perfume culture,” Öniz said. “Perfume and glass technologies spread from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe. These bottles are among the earliest examples of perfume imports from east to west.”
The excavation team, which has also investigated shipwrecks from the Middle Bronze Age, the Hellenistic period and the Roman Imperial era, works with archaeologists and students from countries including Australia, Argentina and Japan through programs with UNESCO, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, and the World Underwater Federation.
“Every wreck we dive into surprises us,” Öniz said. “The most exciting finds are not gold or silver, but the unknown — glass ingots, perfume bottles and the stories they tell.”
