The 2002 study season of the Tektaş Burnu archaeological material took place in Bodrum between mid-July and early September. Our small team of three included Assistant Director Deborah Carlson and Catharine Inbody of Texas A&M’s Nautical Archaeology Program and Kris Trego of the University of Cincinnati,

Over a period of some six weeks, the team studied, photographed, and catalogued a large number of ceramic artifacts that had been desalinated, dried, and mended over the winter months by Esra Altinanit Goksu.

Catharine and Debbie took volumetric measurements of all intact amphoras from the wreck, which included 60 of an estimated 200 total pseudo-Samian amphoras, and Kris Trego dedicated herself to artifact photography.

Asaf Oron, Head Conservator at the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, was on hand to help lift some of the fragile Mendean amphoras that are filled with pine tar and weigh, on average, 40 kg or more.

As a result of the 2002 study season, we now have a good idea of where the pseudo-Samian jars from Tektaş Burnu may have been manufactured.  These amphoras, called pseudo-Samian, find parallels throughout East Greece and the Black Sea Several of the amphoras bear stamps, generally on the neck, on the shoulder, or at the base of a handle. The most revealing stamp is a circle, 2 cm in diameter, framing the Greek letters ERU, located on the neck of the amphora. This monogram recalls the fifth-century coinage of nearby Erythrae. The attribution of pesudo-Samian amphoras to Erythrae is particularly intriguing because so little is known about the Classical city.