Discovery off Israel’s coast reveals earliest known 2,600-year-old shipment of raw iron

The discovery was made in an ancient shipwreck in the Dor Lagoon near the Carmel Coast, where archaeologists recovered nine pieces of unprocessed iron known as “blooms. ” Researchers from the University of Haifa said Wednesday that an underwater excavation off Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast uncovered what they described as the earliest known cargo of raw iron transported by ship, dating back around 2,600 years, Xinhua reported.