Israel says 3,000-year-old shipwreck found off north coast

A shipwreck more than 3,000 years old with its cargo intact has been found off the northern coast of Israel, the country's antiquities authority said Thursday.

The wreck and its artefacts were discovered more than a mile deep on the bed of the Mediterranean Sea by London-listed energy firm Energean which operates off Israel.

A survey by the company uncovered the ship's cargo of hundreds of amphorae, double-handled jugs that stored goods at sea like wine or olive oil during the Bronze Age.

"The ship seems to have sunk in crisis, either due to a storm or to an attempted piracy attack -- a well-known occurrence in the Late Bronze Age," Jacob Sharvit, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority's marine unit, said in a statement.

The wreck was found last year 90 kilometres from the coast of northern Israel and was estimated by officials to date back to the 14th or 13th century BC.

More than three millennia old, the wreck dates from a time when maritime trade started to boom during the Bronze Age.

The Energean team surveying the sea found a large pile of the jugs heaped on the sea floor, the company's environment lead Karnit Bahartan said.

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