Italian Shipwreck Archaeology

VENTOTENE: STATUE RECOVERY FROM THE ROMAN FISHPOND (2008)

The small island of Ventotene (less than 3 km long), is located 45 km off the Italian mainland in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The island became imperial property under Augustus and construction of a villa on the island was initiated shortly before Augustus’ daughter, Julia the Elder, was exiled there in the first century BC. After this, Ventotene became a popular destination for imperial exiles. Tiberius banished his grand-niece Agrippina the Elder (wife of Germanicus, mother of Caligula) in 29 AD; Julia Livilla, youngest daughter of Agrippina, was sent to the island, followed by (in 62 AD) Claudia Octavia, the first wife of Nero , who was subsequently executed there. Due to the social status of these upper-class inmates, the island underwent a major architectonic transformation: a large and elegantly decorated imperial villa was built on the northern promontory of “Punta Eolo,” a harbor was carved into the rock, a complex system of cisterns was designed to provide fresh water, and a monumental fishpond was built.

The fishpond, located on the northwest of the island at the extremity named Punta di Terra, was part of a large imperial maritime complex. Archaeological remains indicate an Augustan date for the initial construction. Carving saltwater pools into the rocks adjoining maritime villas and farming edible fish seems to have been a fashion among the Roman elite, promoting a taste for fresh saltwater fish.

In June 2008, ProMare sponsored the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici del Lazio’s work in recovering the only remaining statue from Ventotene’s fishpond. The statue represents a Roman magistrate wearing a toga with the box containing the law scrolls to his right, carved from a single block of white marble (1.60 m tall and 0.70 m wide). The back of the statue is flat and purposely left unfinished, suggesting that it was originally placed against a wall, and might have fallen from one of the terraced upper rooms of the villa. The subject depicted might have been ideologically linked with the function of the villa as a place of political exile. Stylistically, it dates between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. The artifact is currently being conserved at the local archaeological museum.

The Search for Fallen Heroes (2004)

In 2004 ProMare lead an expedition to Lake Garda, Italy to locate the remains of 24 US Servicemen lost in 1945, just days before WWII ended, when their amphibious truck overturned, drowning all hands aboard.

As Allied troops rushed north through Italy into southern Europe, this amphibious 2 ½ ton truck, one of the ubiquitous DUKWs, was lost on Lake Garda, 60 miles east of Milan.  One of three such vans in the advance north, the DUKW was loaded with a field artillery piece and 24 infantry when it was launched from Torbole on the northeastern corner of the lake.  Horribly overloaded, the vehicle was swamped taking both artillery and men to the bottom, 200 meters below. All of the servicemen who were aboard are still listed as missing in action.

We have employed state of the art sonar systems to search the lake bed but could not locate the DUKW. We plan to return to Lake Garda with an autonomous underwater vehicle and manned submersible to continue our search, in the near future.

The Lake Garda Project in the news

National Geographic published an article here.

The Daily Mail published an article here.

The U.S. Army published an article here.

CROTON, SURVEYS AND STUDY OF THE ANCIENT COASTLINE (2009-2010)

The city of Croton, located on the Ionian coast of modern Calabria in Southern Italy, has always played a crucial role for sailors headed to the Strait of Messina and the western Mediterranean, due to its east-facing harbor and a rocky coastline full of small bays and wind-sheltered coves. In antiquity, the coastline seems to have been even more articulated and complex than it currently is: Pliny the Elder (NH III, 10.95-96) describes a small archipelago of five islands in the area that has since disappeared from view. Two of the islands were still observable in 1525 in the nautical charts of the seafarer and geographer Piri Reis, and were last documented in a Greek portolano written by an anonymous sailor in the 16th century. The Abbé de Saint-Non and C. Tait Ramage, when they visited the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, also left drawings of promontories in the area which no longer exist.

In 2009 and 2010 the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria, under Dr. Domenico Marino’s scientific direction, with support from ProMare, launched a systematic exploration of the Crotonian littoral between the city’s harbor and La Tonnara. While the area of Croton was already known to be one of the richest in Italy for the presence of ancient shipwrecks (five Roman marble carriers are worth mentioning, along with 10 other shipwrecks ranging in time from the Greek Archaic period to the Renaissance Age), the main goal of the project was to search for traces of ancient habitation which might testify to changes in the coastline. Submerged features such as quarries with their carved blocks still connected to the bedrock, and the presence of artifact assemblages close to the shoreline, were among the types of evidence sought. If found, the former feature, in particular, would be useful in helping researchers reconstruct and date stone-working areas that were above sea-level in antiquity.

During two seasons of research, compelling evidence attesting to this coastal transformation was uncovered. Thirty-four submerged quarry elements (blocks and column-drums), some of them dating to the 6th century BC and still attached to the bedrock, were located at a maximum depth of 4 m; a new map of the quarry now shows the extent of this feature beneath the water. Additionally, numerous tiles and amphora sherds, one example of which dated to the 3rd century B.C., confirmed the presence of human habitation in the areas of the coastline now submerged beneath the sea. Pieces of amphoras dating to the Roman Imperial period and found at the entrance to the city’s harbor, testify, as well, to its use at from at least the 2nd century B.C.

At the end of the 2010 season enough data was collected to propose a possible reconstruction of the ancient coastline in the area. Each item or feature uncovered was measured and georeferenced, making it possible to trace the general shape of the former coastline, which was at least 70 m further offshore than at present. GPS coordinates, taken manually, and following the submerged outlines of three elongated shoals, 1 to 5 m deep, revealed the shape of promontories now submerged like the tiny islands of Croton’s archipelago.

ANAXUM PROJECT: THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF AQUILEIA’S WATERWAYS

PHASE 1: STELLA 1 SHIPWRECK

In the summer of 2011, the ProMare team (Ayse Atauz, Dante Bartoli, Peter Holt, and Lindsey Thomas) joined the University of Udine professor Massimo Capulli and his students (Lucrezia Federico, Daniel Iacumin, and Massimo Iob) and Texas A&M University professor Filipe Castro and his students (Kelby Rose and Kotaro Yamafune) to excavate a Roman shipwreck in the Stella River. The project was carried out under the general supervision of Prof. Luigi Fozzati of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Friuli-Venezia.

The Stella River was named Anaxum in Roman times, and has been a site of habitation for thousands of years. The largest Roman settlement near the Stella 1 shipwreck is Aquileia, which was founded in the 2nd century BCE.  It was the most important commercial hub of the northern Adriatic area before its utter destruction by Attila in A.D. 452 and later by the Lombards in A.D. 590, which caused its inhabitants to flee to the nearby lagoon and establish Venice.

In Northeastern Italy, there was a network of rivers, man-made canals, and lagoons that connected the populations of the southern base of the Alps and the large Roman city of Aquileia to the sea. The Stella River and the other inland waterways of Italy have played an important role in the development of the region by providing the means for an efficient transportation system.

The Stella 1 shipwreck is a laced vessel from the 1st century AD.  It was built at the beginning of the Roman Imperial Age and sank carrying a cargo of Roman tiles, a small collection of Dressel 2/4 and Lamboglia amphoras, presumably for the use of the crew, iron carpenter’s tools, a small wicker basket, and some ceramic artifacts, likely also for personal use. Stamps on the tiles indicate local production.

The team conducted a full recording of hull details and construction. In order to access some of the timbers, it was necessary to use a water dredge to remove the sediment obstructing access to the shipwreck. All extant timbers were recorded and a corresponding timber catalog created.  A combination of direct measurements and trilateration from control points was used to measure the vessel, and a reconstruction was created.  Both wooden and virtual 3D models are being created at the Texas A&M University Ship Reconstruction Laboratory by team members Filipe Castro and Kotaro Yamafune in order to better understand the vessel.

This barge was constructed with laced planks, following a traditional construction system in the region, which does not require the use of dowels to edge-fasten the planks together and provide resistance to sheer efforts, as in the Greek tradition of the Pre-Classical and Classical periods. Though the planking was sawn from timbers of good quality, repairs stretch across the bottom of the vessel.   

The first century AD was a time of extraordinary expansion for the Roman Empire, and the new Roman territories and settlements to the north and east of the Adriatic Sea required vast amounts of building material. Later, these settlements would able to establish their own production centers, but in the early phases of Romanization, most supplies were shipped from existing production centers. The Stella 1 vessel was likely part of this vast network of supply for the growing Roman Empire.  Loaded with locally made tile, the vessel may have been heading to Aquileia, from which the cargo could have been sent to any part of the expanding empire.