Archaeologists have found a shipwreck off the coast of Turkey dating back around 4,700 years, making it the oldest discovered in the world.

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Archaeologists have found a shipwreck off the coast of Turkey dating back around 4,700 years, making it the oldest discovered in the world.

Several ancient storage vessels called amphorae were found during excavations of the wreck. It was found at a depth of about 100 feet near Kekova Island off the coast of southern Turkey, according to a statement from the country's cultural ministry, CNN reported.

"We are uncovering traces of the world's oldest shipwreck in our blue homeland," said Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the Turkish culture and tourism minister.

Hakan Öniz, a professor at Akdeniz University, Antalya, led the excavations. He told CNN that the shipwreck was discovered four years ago.

Archaeologists started the excavation earlier this year, with analysis of the clay suggesting the jars were probably made in the Jordan Valley, possibly in the Early Bronze Age, Sky News reported.

The amphorae are believed to have been mostly used for transporting olive oil or wine, but they have a distinctive set of marks and two holes in the body. Archaeologists believe it means sailors may have used them to make cheese or butter.

Researchers said the amphora could mean that sailors brought goats with them on the ship, using their milk to make dairy foods.

The amphorae were originally thought to be much more recent, but Öniz said he read a publication on amphorae that had been found near the Giza pyramids in Egypt.

The oldest Giza pyramid was built around the same time this ship sank.

"These [in the publication] resembled the amphorae in our shipwreck," Öniz told CNN Wednesday. A team of researchers made another dive at the site. They then invited Australian archaeologist Karin Sowada, who is a leading expert on amphorae, to visit the shipwreck.

"We reached a consensus and proceeded with further analysis," Öniz said.

He said the team is "generally confident" that the find is the oldest shipwreck in the world.

"It is not just the amphorae," he told CNN. "The anchors and other artifacts found at the shipwreck site also point to the same centuries."

Ersoy said the amphorae appear to have traveled around the Eastern Mediterranean.

"Clay analyses indicate that the amphorae were likely produced in workshops in the Jordan Valley," Ersoy said in a statement.

"The fact that similar examples have been found in Egypt, Troy and Crete is of great importance for understanding the trade networks that connected different geographies via sea routes," he said.

Researchers believe the ship may have been traveling from the Levantine coast, which runs from Turkey to Egypt, to Troy or Crete when it sank.