ISTANBUL, TURKEY—A wooden object dating to the ninth century has been discovered within one of the 37 ships uncovered in the Yenikapı area of Istanbul, which was known as Theodosius Port during the Byzantine period. “We found something like today’s notebook. It is made of wood and can be opened like a notebook. It has a few pages and you can take notes using was. Also, when you draw its sliding part, there are small weights used as an assay balance,” Ufuk Kocabaş of Istanbul University told Hurriyet Daily News. Sixty percent of the sunken ship was preserved, and a replica of it is being built. The amphoras it had been carrying suggest that its crew had traded from Crimea to Kersonesos.
Wooden Notebook Discovered in Byzantine Ship
News May 7, 2014
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