Ancient Port of Kelenderis

The ancient port of Kelenderis in the Aydıncık district of Mersin, on the southern coast of Anatolia, is a remarkable archaeological site with a mosaic of great importance for maritime history. The mosaic, dated to the 5th or 6th century AD, depicts a ship that has just entered the port in detail. The ship’s coat of arms has sparked a series of debates in the archaeological community.

How can a painting produced by arranging tiny stones on the ground two thousand five hundred years ago create a controversy? And if the initiators of this debate are not archaeologists? The crux of the controversy was whether the boat in the mosaic carried square sails or Latin sails. The differences of opinion among classical sailing enthusiasts are increasingly of interest to archaeologists. Because the subject was important in a way other than art history. It was known that the introduction of the Latin sail changed the sea routes, but the exact time period of this change was not known. Classical boat researcher Cem Gür, while evaluating the depiction of the boat in the mosaic, stated that there was no knowledge of perspective at that time and that the form of the boat was tried to be shown with simple drawing methods. He also emphasized that the sail was gathered with the reefing ropes, but the reefing ropes were depicted in an incorrect position on the sail.

In this case, knowledge of sailing and painting was put to the service of archaeology, which concluded that the ship in the mosaic had square sails. Because another picture in the upper right corner also showed a square sail. In addition, the port side of the spar was shown below, confirming the transition from square sails to the primitive Latin sail. In addition, the fact that the spar is shown below the port side confirms the transition to primitive Latin sails. As a result, it was seen that even a simple mosaic can make a significant contribution to maritime history.