Limited Edition

The ship that went down after crashing into
the reefs in a small bay called Serçe Harbor
near Aegean coastal town of Marmaris,
Turkey, is known as the ‘Glass Wreck’ due to
the content of its finds. The sunken ship is
dated back to the 11th century, approximately
to the year 1025. Apparently, the scrap glass
shards found in the wreck were being carried
to a location where they would be melted
and reused, whereas newly production
glassware were aimed to be sold at the ports
of call. In the wreck lying down 32 meters
deep and discovered between 1977-1979
by the Institute of Underwater Archeology
under the leadership of Prof. Dr. George
Bass, glass artifacts embodying a multitude
of glasswork techniques such as trailing,
engraving, cold-cutting, repousse work were
retrieved from underwater. In the wreckage,
a large number of superior quality glassware,
silver and copper coins of the Byzantine
Empire, gold coins and glass weights of
the Fatimid Empire, and glass panes of the
Fatimid Empire, everyday objects belonging
to the crew and weapons were found. The
shipwreck was removed from the water and
brought together to be exhibited in a special
hall. Serçe Harbor glasses are the largest and
most important medieval glass collection in
the world.
Shipwreck hunters who illegally dive into
sunken ships, removed amphoras and similar
easy-to-carry portable artifacts they found
without permission. The presence of wrecks is
determined by heap of amphoras piled up in
the sand of the seabed. In Turkish territorial
waters, underwater cultural assets, which
are known to exist and have been located,
are designated as forbidden dive zones
for the shipwrecks to be handed down the
next generations without being robbed or
destroyed.
Ancient Amphora draws its inspiration
from the amphoras that help determine
the presence of shipwrecks. Relief patterns
on it are the patterns found on the Islamic
glassware recovered from the Serçe Harbor
Wreck merchant ship.
The sunken ship and its cargo have been on
display at Bodrum Underwater Archeology
Museum since 1985, under the auspices of
Şişecam. With the documentary “Glass and
Glass Again”, the story of the Glass Wreck
and the endless recyclability of glass reaches
a wider audience.
Today, there are many historic artifacts and
amphoras removed illegally from Turkey on
the displays of the museums of countries
such as the USA, Germany, Russia, Denmark,
Italy, France, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Ukraine,
and the United Kingdom.
Ancient Amphora is produced from
granulated handmade tinted glass and all of
the relief patterns are decorated with gold
and antiquated paints.