Archaeologists say the wreck is up to 4,700 years old, dating to the Early Bronze Age.

By Alison Francis, Rebecca Morelle and Kevin Church The world's oldest shipwreck has been discovered off the coast of Turkey, archaeologists say. They have dated it to between 4,400 and 4,700 years old, which is the Early Bronze Age, and is around the same time that the Great Pyramid was being built. The ship's wooden structure has not survived, but the ceramic storage pots it was carrying were lying on the sea floor and, remarkably, some still contain traces of what they held inside.

The archaeologists who found the ship say it was about 10m in length and was a trade vessel carrying cargo across the Mediterranean Sea.

"The shipwreck is a time capsule at the bottom of the sea," said Prof Hakan Öniz, from Akdeniz University in Turkey, who led the Mediterranean Archaeology Association expedition. The wreck is close to the shore of Kekova Island in Antalya, Turkey.

The artefacts lie scattered across an underwater slope, just 30m beneath the waves. Three large stone anchors were found, as well as more than 30 ceramic storage pots, called amphorae. The fact that none of the ship's wood remained meant techniques like radiocarbon dating - which measures a form of carbon in organic materials - could not be used to determine its age. Instead, archaeologists analysed the shape of the amphorae.

Because pottery styles have changed over time, differerent styles are linked to particular periods. The Kekova ceramics are distinctive, with two handles, a ridge in the middle and a flat base. Öniz said this design matched other amphorae unearthed in Egypt and the Middle East that were known to be 4,400-4,700 years old. "Comparing the decoration techniques… we can definitely say our wreck is Early Bronze Age. This is 100%."

Divers from the expedition brought the pots up to the surface, where they are now being carefully conserved after so many thousands of years underwater. Dr Karin Sowada, an archaeologist from Macquarie University, Australia, examined the amphorae after they were recovered.

Some were intact and she was surprised to see they still contained a viscous, glossy residue. "I looked inside and nearly fainted. I could not believe how much [residue] was visible.

It wasn't just like spots…. a lot of this material was still remaining," she said. The team is now working to find out exactly what was being carried in the amphorae. "It could be olive oil, it could be wine, it could be tree resins," Sowada said. "It's possible that [the residue] could actually be the result of reuse of the jars.

I mean, these jars are huge - they're not things that you just ship away and then never see again. People would have emptied these jars on arrival and potentially used them for many, many, many years." The wreck and its cargo are also shedding light on trade in the ancient world. The archaeologists say the ship started its voyage from somewhere along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

They believe is it was taking goods to either the ancient city of Troy, in what is now north-western Turkey, or to the Minoan people in Crete.

Travelling by sea was fraught with danger, particularly around Kekova Island, where the strong currents and winds have claimed many ships.

There are hundreds of wrecks in the area, and the Mediterranean Archaelogy Association specialises in finding and studying them.

Öniz says that when he is diving on the wreck his first thoughts are about the lives of the people who were connected to this vessel. "We are the first humans who [have] touched these objects after 5,000 years.

"We are always thinking of the sailors... the producers of the amphora and the person who carried the amphora on their shoulders to the ship, and the women who were waiting for their husbands, and they unfortunately couldn't go back." The Kekova discovery now tops the list of the world's oldest shipwrecks.

Previously, the record holder was a wreck off the coast of Dokos, an island in southern Greece, which dates to about 4,200 years ago.

The oldest known shipwreck where some of the wood is still preserved was found in the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria. It dates to about 2,400 years ago.