Yesterday I ran across an interesting story on CNN. A little more than four years ago Turkish workers digging a tunnel to connect Asia and Europe ( hoping to relieve some of Istanbul’s horrendous traffic in the process) stumbled across the remains of a major Byzantine port. Nicknamed Port Theodosius after the fourth century emperor who happened to be the last ruler of the united Roman Empire, it was active for four centuries and contains the remains of at least 34 ships. The site has already led to new revelations about the Byzantine art of shipbuilding- apparently they saved time and money by making pre-fab ships, lessening the need (and expense) of master craftsmen. One large ship in particular carried grain on the vital route from Egypt to Constantinople. It inevitably also carried passengers, and if we indulge in a little flight of fancy we can imagine that perhaps one of them was the young Heraclius sailing into the capital to claim the throne.
Of course the march of progress moves on and the site will be be destroyed to make way for the tunnel between the continents, but kudos to the Turkish authorities who have already delayed it for four years while archeologists rush to preserve what they can. How fascinating it must be to live in a place where every shovel full of dirt can bring some forgotten bit of history to light. Who knows what might be discovered tomorrow?
You can read CNN’s full report on the story here.