Roman Ships and Amphorae Found off Sardinia and Panarea

[Melvadius]

The Heritage Key blog discusses the recent spat of announcements about Roman shipwrecks being discovered - obviously the diving season is now in full swing.

 

Roman ship-discovery season is in full flow, with several finds and explorations announced in the past week.

 

Yesterday Ansa ran a story about the discovery of a 25-metre merchant ship from the first century AD with its cargo of 500 amphorae containing fruit and vegetables still on board. The ship is said to be in perfect condition and was found south of Panarea, in the group of Aeolian/Lipari islands north of Sicily. The news agency reported that Italy's Maritime Superintendency and the Aurora Trust, an American foundation, were responsible for the find.

 

Aurora Trust found five wrecks off the Italian island of Ventotene last year, and in fact finding Roman shipwrecks in the Mediterranean is not a rare occurrence. Several discoveries from 2009, at Ventotene and Cyprus, were reported on Heritage Key, while another company searching off the coast of Campania (Capo Palinuro) earlier this year also found a Roman ship carrying amphorae....

 

A linked story referred to by Heritage Key is the recent announcement on ANSA.

(ANSAmed) - PALERMO - The wreck of a Roman ship from the first century AD which is still whole and has over 500 wide-mouthed amphorae onboard has been discovered to the south of the island of Panarea. The discovery, which was made by the Sea Superintendence together with the American Foundation 'Aurora Trust' and the support of the Environment Ministry, was illustrated in a press conference this morning in Palermo by the Regional Councillor for Cultural Heritage, Gaetano Armao, and by the Superintendent, Sebastiano Tusa. ''From the first surveys,'' said Tusa, ''we can establish that it is a merchant shipping measuring around 25 metres, in perfect condition, which transported fruit and vegetables from Sicily to the markets in the north. The style of the amphorae is in fact typical of the 'workshops' of the island and of southern Italy. The merchant ship was identified with the use of a wire-controlled 'Rov' video camera. Now the campaign in the Aeolian islands will proceed with ''research carried out,'' explains Tusa, ''with particularly sophisticated robots which will allow us to better contextualise the wreck in time and space.'' The ship might not be the only one: on the seabed of Panarea there is believed to be another ship. ''Traces have been found,'' concluded Tusa, ''of a second wreck that has not yet been identified. Research will be carried out in this direction.'' The amphorae are the Dressel 21-22 type, datable to the first century AD, made in Lazio and used for the transport of Garum (a popular sauce in Roman times), fresh and dried fruit, as well as various types of cereals. The amphorae were found placed in a slightly different position to their original one on the ship. They are in fact lying on one side. This would indicate that the ship, sliding along the seabed, came to rest leaning on one side. (ANSAmed).