Serce Harbour Glass Wreck:

The 11th century Glass wreck salvaged from the Serce harbour near the Ciftlik region to the South of Marmaris is being showned in the Bodrum Museum. The ship was 16 meters long and 5 meters wide with 35 tons of carrying capacity. The Serce harbour wreck is the oldest wreck recorded that shows the modern ship making technique which the framework is done first. The ship's flat bottom structure was making possible for her to sail in the shallow waters even in the rivers. The ship was carrying over one hundred big gravels that weight 2 tons.

The cargo shows the belongings of a merchant that can travel between Islamic and Byzantine governments. Old glasses were putted in the ship in order to recycle while the newly produced glasses were being sold in the harbours they visit. The weights, a sword, filtered cans, and checkers stones that the crew played with; that are related with the early Ottoman period. By the different artifacts found in the wreck , it was understood that the wreck belongs to the 11th century, to be more specific around 1025.

The main cargo of the Serce Harbour wreck was broken and junk glasses weighted more than 3 tons. These were possibly the remainders of a glass factory around east Mediterennan that where actually broken into pieces in order to save from space. A lot of beautiful glass artifact that are being showed in the Bodrum Museum has been united from hundreds of glass pieces together by the years taking efforts of our specialists.

The archeological research on the Serce harbour wreck has been done by a team leaded by George Bass between 1977 and 1979. Along with the 80 intact glass artifacts, millions of broken pieces of glass has been salvaged from the Serce harbour wreck a.k.a. Glass Wreck. In order to solve this amazing puzzle, specialist worked for years... The 25% of the ship has been completely salvaged. Starport side was destroyed.

The wreck and the artifacts salvaged are being shown in th Bodrum Museum.

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