Uncovering Yenikapi

Inside a long shed covered with white plastic sheeting a team of archeological students from Istanbul University is struggling in the mud to dismantle a cargo ship dating back to the eighth or ninth century.

Outside, the brilliant June sunshine beats down mercilessly on Turkey’s largest city. But the shed is kept cool by a fine mist sprayed from suspended hoses; the mist keeps the exposed wood moist and prevents it from shrinking. Ever so gently, the five women and four men slide a three-meter (10'), L-shaped frame beneath a waterlogged plank too fragile to be lifted directly. One of them gives the go-ahead and they raise the plank in unison, then place it into a wooden case, where it rests on a pine support specially designed to ensure that the plank keeps its shape. Later, the case containing the plank and the support will be lowered into a concrete-lined pool of slowly circulating fresh water. Eventually, after conservation and reassembly, the ancient ship, one of 32 uncovered so far in the run-down Istanbul neighborhood of Yenikapi, will likely go on display in a new museum dedicated to what many experts are calling the greatest nautical archeological site ever discovered: a vast excavation covering more than 58,000 square meters (nearly 625,000 sq ft), the equivalent of 10 city blocks, on what was once the edge of medieval Constantinople.

“It’s the most phenomenal ancient harbor in the world, and it’s absolutely revolutionizing our knowledge of ship construction during Byzantine times,” declares Sheila Matthews, who is unearthing and researching eight boats for the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. “There is no other place that has so many shipwrecks in context with one another.” From brick-transport vessels to round-hulled cargo boats 19 meters (60') long and small lighters used to off-load larger ships, Yenikapii is yielding up the full gamut of ships that once busied one of the most active harbors of the middle ages. Among the site’s astonishing prizes are the first Byzantine naval craft ever brought to light.

Lost for more than 800 years, Yenikapii’s fourth-century port dates back to Theodosius i, the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and western portions of a unified Roman Empire, and it was active until around 1200. …