Cornell Study Dates Kyrenia Shipwreck to 286-272 BCE
Researchers used radiocarbon analysis of preserved almonds after a cleaning method removed a 20th-century preservative that had blocked dating.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Geology
Cornell University researchers have dated the Kyrenia shipwreck, discovered off Cyprus in 1965, to 286-272 BCE. The team published its findings in PLOS ONE after developing a cleaning process that removed polyethylene glycol contamination from the timbers.
Why it matters
The Kyrenia's hull was largely intact, making it a major find for Hellenistic-period Greek shipbuilding, but preservation chemicals had made conventional radiocarbon dating unusable. The method offers a path to dating other waterlogged wrecks treated with the same technique.
Radiocarbon analysis of preserved almonds and a sheep or goat ankle bone was combined with tree-ring modeling to produce the date range, with a 99.9% PEG removal rate reported for the cleaning process. The extraction does not state how well the method performs on wood treated with other preservatives.
The players
Cornell University
A private Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York, whose researchers led the dating study.
University of Groningen
A public research university in the Netherlands that collaborated on the wood cleaning process.
The details
The Kyrenia's timbers had been treated with polyethylene glycol during 20th-century preservation, which introduces fossil carbon and makes radiocarbon results meaningless. Cornell researchers tested a cleaning process on PEG-treated Roman-era timber from Colchester, England, and applied it to the Kyrenia samples, including a small wood fragment from the original excavation that was never treated.
Timeline
1965: The Kyrenia shipwreck is discovered off the coast of Cyprus.
1967-1969: The vessel is excavated alongside hundreds of ceramic vessels.
Last year: The first volume of the final shipwreck publication narrowed the date range to 294-290 BCE.
The Big Picture
The study builds on a recalibration of the international radiocarbon calibration curve for 433-250 BCE using known-age sequoia and oak samples. It shows that the recalibrated curve can date a Hellenistic-period Greek vessel where earlier methods could not.
The cleaning method could let archaeologists date other waterlogged wrecks treated with polyethylene glycol, which would otherwise yield unusable results. Museums holding treated timbers may be able to reexamine their collections with reliable dating.
The takeaway
Preservation methods can unintentionally block later scientific analysis, and cleaning techniques can recover dating potential from treated artifacts. Readers interested in archaeology can watch how these methods are applied to other wrecks.
Further reading
For related coverage of how scientists date ancient materials, see Geology.
Source note: This article includes information reported by NEWSFIRE.
