Underwater magnificent shipyard: Dana Island
Posted on: June 13, 2025
By Leman Altuntaş
Was Dana shipyard a Phoenician settlement?
“A magnificent shipyard, large enough to produce approximately 300 ships, was unearthed with all its infrastructure, not only the boatyards but also workshops, prayer areas, security towers, a castle structure, and many similar archaeological infrastructures.
Such a shipyard changed history in the Mediterranean 2500-3000 years ago and made great steps in maritime history. What is this?
For example, the Salamis Naval Battles took place in the 5th century B.C. The battles that have been the subject of many Hollywood movies, such as the ‘300 Spartans’ movie, took place in Athens, in front of Piraeus. These were the wars between the Persian fleet and the Athenians, that is, the Greek fleet.
We know that the Persians were a land-based society, while the people in Cilicia (current south-west Turkey that belonged to Syria before the French mandate in 1920) were a mariner society because they had no other choices.
The majority of Persian ships were built on the Cilician coast before Tyr was selected as the Queen port before Alexander invasion of the Persia empire. We think that this shipyard is where most of the Persian ships were built. Furthermore, we believe that the ships of Antony and Cleopatra were also built in this region”
Öniz also said the famous Gen. Antigonus’s shipyard was in this area during the Hellenistic period and that many ships built on Dana Island were used in naval battles during this period. He further explained that famous Cilician pirates also held a strong influence in the area.
“In the first century B.C., approximately 1,000 ships of Cilician pirates raided 500 settlements in Greece, and they even challenged the Roman Empire for a period.
We can say that the majority of the ships of these Cilician pirates were built on Dana Island. We have archaeological evidence for this.
“In our recently published article, we discussed that besides the large ships, there is evidence that the smaller boats and dinghies behind these ships were also constructed in a special design at another location behind the ships,” he said.
Öniz also noted that their work on Dana Island dates back to the Paleolithic period.
“We found stone tools on Dana that we know were used between 8,000 and 10,000 B.C.
Dana Island was not a shipyard at that time. The stone tools were probably used by people who transitioned from a hunting society to an agricultural society. But archaeological evidence shows us that Dana Island served as a shipyard, especially since the Late Bronze Age. It is the largest and oldest untouched shipyard in the world,
Öniz said that the cedar trees growing in the Taurus Mountains, just across from Dana Island, were used in ship construction.
He said: “Cedar trees for this shipyard are just one to two hours away, so there are no raw material problems. We know that the shipyard is in a secure harbor area. Along a continuous 1.5-kilometer (0.93-mile) stretch, there are about 300 slipways side by side. The most important aspect of this is the availability of raw materials. Ships can easily dock from the sea without any problems. It’s secure; enemy forces cannot easily attack the shipyard on the island.”
“That’s why it is recorded that in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., the Assyrians attacked Dana Island, as mentioned in the emperor’s memoirs.
He says, ‘There is Dana Island rising like a mountain in the middle of the sea. Thousands of people resisted us there.’ Thousands of people can live on Dana Island. At the time, they were mainly soldiers, carpenters, and other workers of the shipyard,” he added.
DOI: 10.1007/s11457-024-09394-7
Cover Photo: Anatolian Archaeology
11 June 2024
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