The curator of Bodrum Castle and Underwater Museum, Yasar Yildiz, recently announced that they had put the world oldest leaflet on display.
Yıldız revealed that the parchment was excavated from the Uluburnu shipwreck dating from the 14th century B.C. found off the coast of Kaş Uluburnu in 1982. Yildiz said, “among the many artifacts we found in the wreck was the world's oldest leaflet. We assume the leaflet was used as the captain's log.”
The leaflet was written on with honeycomb wax and bound with ivory said Yıldız, adding that the writing was destroyed by erosion as a result of water damage so we do not know what was written. “We think that it had the comings and goings of the ship written down in the log.”
The ship sank in the 14th century B.C. This period had no money system whatsoever and merchants of the time used the barter system. It took a period of 11 years to clean the wreck, found in 1982, of all its precious artifacts. What was found supplied very important information about trade in the Mediterranean during that period.
The magnificent cargo also garnered much interest in academic circles; artifacts made of diverse materials ranging from glass to copper were found in the wreck 14 meters under the sea.
Source: Turkish Daily News
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