/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/96/18/96189b3d-e04b-4d00-8996-245f89801b5f/dsc04914.jpg)
Take an Exclusive Look at Three Newly Discovered Medieval Shipwrecks in Menorca’s ‘Cove of Mysteries’
Meteorological tsunamis likely sank the 13th-century trading vessels, whose cargo included objects from both Christian kingdoms and Moorish communities on the Iberian Peninsula
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/headshot/katie-hitchcock-smith.png)
:focal(2120x1413:2121x1414)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/96/18/96189b3d-e04b-4d00-8996-245f89801b5f/dsc04914.jpg)
The murky, near-zero visibility for the October 2025 dive was “like chocolate,” said Xavier Aguelo Mas, a Catalan archaeologist with the Menorca Shipwreck Project. Donning a fraying wetsuit, he strode down the wooden boat landing toward the Spanish island’s “Cove of Mysteries,” encouraging the researchers and expedition members behind him to follow: “We dive anyway!”
The group’s destination that day was Cala en Busquets, an ancient harbor off Ciutadella. The cove is littered with vessels dating as far back as two millennia. Many of these ships sank during meteorological tsunamis, also known as meteotsunamis or rissagas. Ship-sinking surges in sea level, meteotsunamis manifest unpredictably in minutes and can submerge whole fleets within hours. Proof of the havoc wreaked by this rare phenomenon lies everywhere beneath Menorca’s blue waters.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/51/0b/510bde82-912f-49ee-baf3-b38070d885f7/dsc02626.jpg)
Amid the scattered wreckage rests a rare anomaly: three 13th-century vessels whose overlapping resting spots suggest that they sank simultaneously. Aguelo Mas first started surveying the site in 2009, but excavations funded by the Menorca Shipwreck Project—a collaboration between the New York City-based Explorers Club and local archaeologists and cultural heritage experts—only began in 2023.
Originally believed to be 18th-century shipwrecks, the vessels are far older and rarer than initially thought, a wood-dating analysis conducted in 2025 revealed. Expedition leader Trevor J. Wallace, who is also the project’s founder, has dubbed the ships Busquets I, II and III, after the cove where they were found. Their original names and many of the island’s other medieval records were likely lost when Alfonso III of Aragon conquered Menorca in 1287.
The Busquets had rested untouched for more than 750 years before Aguelo Mas stumbled upon the site. He immediately knew that he’d found something special, but few others shared his convictions. “We have a rough phrase in Spanish: After the bulls pass [by], everybody knows,” Aguelo Mas says. In other words, once the evidence became undeniable, his fellow archaeologists quickly echoed the view that he had held since 2009.
The Busquets were the bulls, and Aguelo Mas was right. The Busquets are the first 13th-century shipwrecks uncovered in Menorca to date, making them “especially significant,” says Beverly Goodman-Tchernov, a marine geoarchaeologist at the University of Haifa in Israel who wasn’t involved in the excavation.
“Shipwrecks from this period are relatively rare in the Mediterranean archaeological record, particularly outside the eastern” part of the region, because of widespread excavations conducted in the 19th century to clear the way for larger harbors, Goodman-Tchernov explains. The Busquets remained untouched thanks to the fortuitous decision to build Menorca’s modern harbor on the other side of the island, leaving the Cove of Mysteries largely undisturbed.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/72/19/7219c825-464f-4663-8bc6-e3e138249f0c/three_shipwrecks_bruno_2.jpg)
In a cemetery of ships, the Busquets stand out for their rarity and unique assortment of artifacts. “While nearly all discovered shipwrecks warrant some research and capture our attention, not all are equally important,” Goodman-Tchernov says. In the Mediterranean, ancient Roman shipwrecks are far more common than medieval shipwrecks, but many have already been heavily pillaged.
Roman trading ships often carried amphorae, jars filled with wine, oil or other goods. These vessels act as a magnet for treasure hunters and looters. A diver might spot a stack of broken pottery and correctly conclude that a shipwreck lies nearby. Ancient merchants switched from using amphorae to degradable wooden barrels that were easier to transport in the second century C.E., making it harder for modern-day looters to visually detect these younger wrecks on the seafloor. “In underwater archaeology, what we say is that the barrel kill[ed] the amphora,” Aguelo Mas says.
Did you know? The world’s oldest deep-sea shipwreck
- In 2024, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of the oldest shipwreck ever found in the deep sea.
- The merchant vessel, which held a cargo of hundreds of amphorae, sank in the Mediterranean around 3,300 years ago.
Unlike many of their Roman counterparts, the Busquets were seemingly never subjected to heavy looting. They offer a rare glimpse into a turbulent chapter in the history of the Balearic Islands, which include Ibiza, Formentera, Majorca and Menorca. Carbon dating of the ships’ timbers suggests that they sank in the late 1240s, likely caught in one of Menorca’s meteotsunamis.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/ab/e0/abe0f3e5-84d6-4e1d-8f6a-7f5c154eb5df/shipwreck-12-dh.jpg)
At the time, the island was under Moorish rule, caught between the Christian kingdoms of modern-day Spain and Muslim invaders who’d gained a foothold on the Iberian Peninsula. The Busquets’ cargo included objects from both communities, preserving evidence of trade between two foreign powers on the brink of war. James I of Aragon conquered Majorca in 1229 and Ibiza in 1235; his grandson Alfonso seized Menorca around 50 years later.
Shipwrecks “serve as archaeological time capsules, preserving a narrow window of time and space,” Goodman-Tchernov says. Wallace’s divers have perfected the art of working in challenging conditions to find these frozen moments in the form of unique artifacts. Diver Kevin Carrigan has dubbed the team’s preferred excavation method the “Queen Elizabeth” because it mimics the late British monarch’s signature wave, a firm palm smoothly swiveling from side to side.
Underwater, this motion stirs the sediment blanketing the Busquets, which is suctioned out through a discharge tube. Last year, the technique helped Wallace uncover what Aguelo Mas describes as Menorca’s “artifact of the decade”: a 13th-century encolpium, or religious reliquary commonly worn by high-ranking clergy.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/6e/21/6e21315d-1412-4a29-960b-cb991acb4f27/encolpium.jpg)
“I was working next to a millstone, and I saw a black corner of something that I thought was contemporary trash,” Wallace recalls. “As I uncovered it, I saw a king with a scepter.” The reliquary is an enigma, much like the Cove of Mysteries itself. But outside experts consulted by the Menorca Shipwreck Project agree that the artifact appears to be one of a kind.
The Christian reliquary, along with unbroken 13th-century Islamic pottery recovered from the shipwrecks, reaffirms the interconnectedness of the Iberian medieval world. Marcel Pujol Hamelink, an expert on medieval shipbuilding methods who worked on the project, says that the finds offer proof that Christian traders and Muslim Moors “were not two worlds apart” at this contentious inflection point in Balearic history.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/01/ab/01ab9561-8701-468e-b8f0-dcf4ff7f36ce/shipwreck_6_dh.jpg)
The encolpium is now being professionally desalinated at the local Museum of Menorca. Once this process is complete, archivists will open the reliquary to discover what is hidden inside. “Maybe a bone?” Aguelo Mas speculates. “Parchment? We don’t know.” Regardless of what is found, continued study of the ships and their cargo promises to yield valuable insights in the years to come.
The archaeologists have already excavated Busquets I and II, but work on Busquets III is ongoing. They hope to publish a research paper detailing their findings in spring 2027.
Aguelo Mas is cautiously optimistic that more medieval shipwrecks might still be found off Menorca. “We [could] have Busquets IV, V,” he says. Wallace agrees, saying, “It’s an unraveling story still.” He adds, “This tiny little cove, this underwater museum … still has a lot to tell.”
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/headshot/katie-hitchcock-smith.png)