The Ulu Burun Wreck. In many respects scholars know more about the construction of the ships of the Greeks than they do about their land vehicles. Few carts and wagons were buried intact for later archaeologists to discover. Land vehicles, once they had outlived their usefulness, were abandoned in a field to decay or were broken up for firewood and scrap metal. In contrast, as a result of storms, faulty navigation, and hostile activity many ancient ships met their end by settling, cargo and all, on the protective sand and mud of the Mediterranean sea floor. There they remained for generations, decaying slowly, until in the present century they became accessible to the relatively new science of underwater archaeology. For example, the Ulu Burun ship went down around 1300 B.C.E. off the southern coast of Turkey in 150 feet of water. It...