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    serçe limani and its wrecks Serçe Limanı (˚'"N, ˚'"E), Turkish for “Sparrow Harbor,” is a small, protected bay on the southwest coast of Turkey, just opposite Rhodes (Figs. - and -). Although grammatically incorrect, the name Serçe Liman was used by the local fishermen and shepherds we met there in the late s (and may still be), which explains our use of that shorter form of the name in early publications. The proper name is pronounced Sêrchê Limänu, unaccented, with the ä like the a in father and the final vowel like the u in up. To introduce her survey of part of the bay’s bottom (see chapter ), Dorothy Slane describes the topography: The coastline of the peninsula on which Serçe Limanı lies is nearly vertical for long stretches. Along the entire length of the peninsula’s southern coast there are only two inlets of any size that afford shelter from the open sea. These are Serçe Limanı itself and Bozukkale1 (ancient Loryma) to the west, Bozukkale being the larger. The entrance to Serçe Limanı is narrow and deep with the bay opening immediately upon access into a rough oval with a dog-leg extension to the northeast (Figs. - and -). The shoreline of the bay is composed of extremely rough limestone with two small cobbled beaches, one to the northwest and the other, the main beach, at the head of the dog-leg to the east. These beaches lie at the ends of mountain passes that extend from the northern side of the peninsula. As a result of these passes, the harbor is often buffeted by winds that become trapped in the bay and swirl confusingly.2 Just inside the harbor entrance on the eastern side is a cargo of amphoras, probably Rhodian, perhaps of the first century .. or .. at a depth of about – m. This site, discovered by Donald Frey during a single dive while the excavation of the eleventh-century wreck was in progress, has not been explored. From the narrow opening of the entrance, the eastern shoreline curves back into a shallow cove backed by a sheer face that resulted from a rockslide which partly covered a third-century .. Hellenistic amphora carrier, – m below, with large boulders.3 The northern end of this cove is a ridge that extends out under the bay to the northwest. Four anchors found in this area define it as an anchorage of some antiquity (Fig. -; see also chapter ). Beyond the ridge, the shoreline curves back to the east. Within a hundred meters, in relatively shallow water on a gently sloping sandy bottom, lies a scattering of Late Hellenistic pottery that probably represents a badly disturbed shipwreck.4 chapter 1 Introduction and Explanations George F. Bass #    In .. , or shortly thereafter,5 a modest merchant ship sailed into this seemingly safe haven, perhaps seeking shelter. Her voyage had probably taken her from the vicinity of Constantinople, perhaps from a Byzantino-Slavic community, to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. There her merchants , most likely including Hellenized Bulgarians,6 took on as cargo  metric tons of cullet (including a ton of broken Islamic vessels), some eighty pieces of intact glassware, nearly four dozen glazed Islamic bowls,7 approximately four dozen red-ware cooking vessels, half a dozen copper cauldrons and buckets (see chapter ), and sumac and raisins from a port within the Fatimid caliphate. Now, at an anchorage used for centuries, her crew cast the starboard bower anchor (see chapter ). Its iron shank snapped, perhaps from a sudden gust of the wind that is still funneled unexpectedly, but with gale force, down through the surrounding valleys. Suddenly adrift, the ship crashed onto the nearby rocky shore and sank. Those of the crew who could swim should have had no trouble reaching shore, especially if they made the beach not far distant inside the harbor. It seems, however, that they had no chance to save many, if any, of their personal possessions. It is this ship and some of her contents that are described in the following pages. Seldom visited by other than a few fishing and sponge boats in the s, Serçe Limanı was by the s a popular and often crowded yacht harbor, with summer restaurants at both ends of its widest part. explanation of site plan The plan of the site is intended to provide the reader with an overall picture of the wreck and its contents (Fig. -). Although the plan is generally...

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