Based on its incredible preservation, archaeologists have been able to date the ship back to the Renaissance. That's around the late 15th or early 16th century CE, the time of Christopher Columbus and Leonardo da Vinci.

Though it likely dates back to 500 to 600 years ago, "it’s almost like it sank yesterday," Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, a maritime archeologist with the survey specialists MMT, said in a statement. The ship was first discovered using sonar -which uses sound waves to detect objects- by the Swedish Maritime Administration back in 2009.

But Pacheco-Ruiz and his team, in collaboration with the Centre for Maritime Archeology at the University of Southampton in England, recently led an archeological survey of the wreck using underwater robots. 

The name and origin of the lost Baltic ship have not yet been identified. For now, the maritime archaeologists are calling it Okänt Skepp, Swedish for “unknown ship.” Dr. Pacheco-Ruiz and his team are deliberately keeping its exact location secret, to deter scavengers and treasure hunters.

They plan to return to the Baltic site for another round of exploration, in particular to retrieve a wooden plank. Laboratory analyses can date ancient wood to within a year of its human acquisition, Dr. Pacheco-Ruiz said, which would help pinpoint exactly when the ship was built and put to sea.

Vira Maritime