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REI CRETA RIlE ROMANlE FAVTORVM ACTA 36, 2000 /tl4&, ~ti1z~

Anna Marguerite McCann 6t~~~e..-?~~~~ "4 ce.z;Uc AMPHORAS FROM THE DEEP SEA: ~~h~ ,--

ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS BETWEEN CARTHAGE AND ROME t.~t., ~~

Fig. 1: Location of Skerki Bank Deep Sea Archaeological Project and some possible trade routes for theancient R'Oman shipwrecks. (Map: P. Oberlander).

dous break through for the archaeologist. With camera, videoand sonar we can now search wide areas of the sea floorwith accuracy and speed where man previously was unableto go. Moreover, at these depths pottery is often unbroken,undisturbed by waves and looters. Over 95% of the oceanfloor still remains unexplored. Since over three fifth of planetearth is covered by water, the opportunity for new know-ledge about ancient ships with their cargoes of pottery is

The first archaeological explorations in the Deep Seawith the new robotic technology have brought to light a pre-viously unknown ancient trade route over the open seas be-tween ancient Carthage and Rome (fig. 1).1 That there wasa quick, direct route over the open seas between Africa andOstia has long been known. The Roman orator, Cato theElder, in the first half of the second century BC showed theSenate at Rome a fig that 'had been picked at Carthage threedays before'.2 What scholars did not know before the SkerkiBank expeditions was that the route crossed over the treach-erous Skerki Bank reef.

Working with a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) at adepth of about 800 m as well as with the US Navy's nuclearsubmarine, the NR-l, a team of archaeologists, engineers,oceanographers and conservators,3 have discovered fiveancient Roman shipwrecks as well as a small medieval fish-ing vessel and two nineteenth century wooden sailing ships.Expeditions took place in 1989 and 1997 in internationalwaters off the west coast of Sicily, just north ofSkerki Bank,a treacherous reef that lies just below the surface. The SkerkiBank Deep Sea Archaeology Project represents a tremen-

1 McCann/Freed 1994. - A. M. McCann, Roman Shipwrecks fromthe Deep Sea: New Trade Route off Skerki Bank in the Mediter-ranean. Context (Boston Univ. Arch. Stud., fall 1999, 14, n. 2) 1-6. - R. D. Ballard/A. M. McCann et. al.. The Discovery of An-cient History in the Deep Sea Using Advanced Deep Submer-gence Technology. Deep-Sea Research, Sept. 2000.

2 Plin. nat. 15.75. For length of voyage between Ostia and Africafrom two to four days see L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship inthe Ancient World (Princeton NJ 1995) 282'::-284, with two daysthe record time with favorable winds and a speed of 6 knots.

) The team was headed up by Robert D. Ballard, Institute for Ex-ploration, Mystic, CT. The engineering team was directed by DanaYoerger, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This author dir-ected the archaeology/conservation teams that also included JohnP. Oleson and Jon Adams, archaeologists, and Dennis Piechota,Mary-Lou Florian and Cathy Giangrande, conservators.

443

A. M. MCC,..NN Alnphora Studies

unlimited. The need for training students in pot-tery studies and particularly amphoras is evenmore critical as t~is vast new archaeological re-source of the deepsea opens up.

. ,O~ of the most versatile ROV's in use forscience today named Jason was developed at theWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution by RobertD. Ballard and a group of talented engineers(fig. 2). ROV Jason is now a federal researchvehicle. The 1989 Skerki Bank Project was thefirst sea trial for ROV Jason.4 The robot gave itsname to the first of the JASON Projects directedtoward the education of children in the sciencesand included the first live, interactive televisiondirectly from the sea floor. About 225,000 chil-dren iT'?the United States and Canada in their sci-ence museums communicated directly with theteam in the Mediterranean in a half-second oftime. This achievement was recognized by a . ...

b f . 1 d . 1 d ' h 99 Fig. 2: ROV Jason, 2.2 m long and 1.1 m wIde, holdIng amphora mnum er 0 natIona awar s mc u mg tel 0.. ..

. .. c h d f ItS robotIc arm, over the 'ISIS' wreck sIte. (Photo: Quest Group Ltd.).Amencan AssocIatIon lor teA vancement 0

Science (AAAS) Westinghouse Award and theComputerworld Smithsonian Award. The JASON Projectshave continued every year and now reach about one halfmillion school children annually.

ROV Jason's precise maneuverability as well as its multi-sensory imaging systems make it an ideal ROV for carefularchaeological work. Since 1989 Jason has evolved into aninstrument that can produce both on-site black and whitephoto mosaics created from a series of digital images as wellas precise bathymetric maps of the individual wreck sitesusing scanning sonar techniques. The resulting microtopo-graphic maps are within one centimeter of accuracy.

Bank campaigns together recovered and catalogued 180 ar-tifacts: 65 objects In 1989 and 115 in 1997. Of this material,56 are amphoras. Many more were documented by video,digital and 35 mm still cameras. The cargoes from the fiveancient Roman shipwrecks found are surprisingly varied,each including material from both the eastern and westernMediterranean. Clearly the ancient Mediterranean was anopen highway for transport between the east and the westeven during war and after the division of the empire. Theearliest of the Roman wrecks, Skerki Wreck D, dates in thefirst half of the first century BC while the latest wreck found

b

Essential for Jason's archaeologic-al work is the electrically controlledmechanical arm and claw used to re-cover samples and artifacts (fig. 2).5Artifacts can be recovered from thedeep sea without damage and lifted tothe surface by an autonomous eleva-tor-device acoustically controlled.These first artifacts recovered from thedeep sea have now been successfullyconserved and are part of an exhib-ition, 'Challenge of the Deep', pres-ently on view by the Institute for Ex-ploration at the Mystic Aquarium,Mystic, CT.

While the archaeological goal ofthe Skerki Bank Projects was primar-ily documentation of the surface re-mains, the archaeologists selec;tedsome key artifacts to be recovered forthe study and dating of the wrecks andtrade route. The 1989 and 1997 Skerki Fig. 3: a MJ89-29, Greco-Italic amphora from port of Co sa, Will type Id, first

half of second century BC. Scale: I: 10. (Drawing: P. Oberlander). - b Sestius

stamp on amphora MJ89~29 (SES with reversed trident) from trade route northof Skerki Bank. Scale: I: I, stamp 3.5 x 1..0 cm.

4 McCann/Freed 1994, 93-97.5 McCann/Freed 1994, 97.

444

AMPHORAS FROM THE DEEP SEA: ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS BETWEEN CARTHAGE AND ROMEAmphora Studies

I - . . I5 Meters

Fig. 4: Photomosaic of Skerki Wreck D found at depth of c.800 m, looking north. First half of first century BC.(Photo: Institute tor Exploration/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).

44,

Amphora Studie.'iA. M. MCCANN

in 1989 and named by this author, the' Isis', dates in the lastquarter of the fourth century AD.6 Other amphoras scatteredover the sea floor further extend the ancient use of this routeover the open seas back to the second and third centuriesBC, covering the span of Roman domination of the Medi-terranean. One of the amphoras recovered from the traderoute site is stamped at the base of one handle with the earli-est known Sestius stamp, identified by a unique reversedtrident (fig. 3).7 This special find provides further evidencefor the early manufacture of amphoras by that family at theport of Co sa on the Tyrrhenian coastline about 138 km northof Rome in the first hal f of the second century BC.

of the port of Co sa in the last centuries of the Republic.Visible in the photomosaic of Skerki D, in the southern

portion of the northern cluster, but not recovered were alsoseveral Dressel I C(Will Type 5) amphoras used to ship a pro-cessed fish sauce called garum.lo This amphora type may oc-cur as early as the late second century BC and continues in-to the second quarter of the first century BC. Traces of ga.'"Umwere actually found inside a small sealed jug (SK97.074) re-covered from the wreck. I I Other amphora shapes recovered

as well as other examples still on the sea floor are elevenjars of Lamboglia Form 2 (Will Type 10) dated again in thelate second and early first centuries BC.12 While this popu-lar form is found widely distributed throughout the westernMediterranean, its origin is along the Italian Adriatic coast.E. L. Will associates this shape with olive oil. Another am-phora shape, the 'Brindisi type' is usually associated witholive oil and dated before 50 BC. However, since our re-covered example (SK97.065) shows evidence of pitch onthe interior, it must have contained wine rather than oil.

Also a Tripolitanian oil amphora was recovered datableto the second or first centuries BCI3 and two small, flat bot-tomed amphoras from Gaul that may have contained wineor beer (fig. 6).14 The fabric of the latter is typically Gaulish -light, fine and cream colored. These Gallic wine jars areusually dated, however, at the end of the first century BC inthe Augustan period, a date that appears too late for therest of the material. Wreck D may provide the earliest evi-dence thus far for the exportation of wine from Gaul.

Another amphora shape visible in the photomosaic butnot recovered is a long, narrow, wide-mouthed Punic typeof amphora (Dressel Form 18) from the west side of the aftcluster of material. 15 It probably contained fruit or pickled

fish and is found in both North Africa and Italy. This typealso appears on the upper wreck of the Grand Congloue,dated now between 110 and 80 BC.16 Other amphora formsvisible in the aft section but also not recovered are some

This paper will focus on finds from the earliest and prob-ably the largest of the five Roman shipwrecks, Skerki Wreck D(fig. 4). The recovered finds as well as the other amphorasleft on the sea floor but visible in the photomosaic date inthe first half of the first century BC. A Campanian black-glazed plate8 may be dated between 80 and 60 BC, furthernarrowing the probable date of the wreck. The other datableartifacts include kitchen and common ware, finer pottery,bronze tableware and two lead anchor stocks with one leadanchor strap. They must mark the bow at the north end ofthe site, which is about 20 m long overall. Only a scatter ofintact amphoras can be seen between the anchors and theforward cluster of artifacts (diam. 4 m), 5.0 m to the south.The presence in this area of a hand-rotated stone quem anda large roof tile (to keep the brazier off the wooden struc-ture) suggest the location of the galley. Moving further south,a gap of3.6 m separates this heap from a second, larger clus-ter of artifacts (diam. 5 m) at the aft end of the wreck. Thereare a few scattered amphoras and smaller ceramics aroundthe periphery of the wreck site. The axis of the ship seemsclear: the anchors and two artifact clusters are on more orless a straight line, perpendicular to one of the dischargepipes of the bilge pump, visible at the forward end of the aft

artifact cluster.The visible cargo is of enormous interest (fig. 4). 35 ar-

tifacts were lifted and catalogued from Skerki D. Our pre-liminary study of the imagery has identified a surprisinglywide variety of amphora types: at least 13 different forms,originating in Italy, Gaul, North Africa and Greece. Nineamphoras were recovered, representing six different types.By far the most numerous amphora shape on the wreck isthat of Dressel Form 1B (Will Type 4b) (figs. 5; 7), a popu-lar wine amphora dated from about 80 to 30 BC and one ofthe main types manufactured by the Sestius family at theport of Cosa, the earliest Roman harbor known along thecoastline of ancient Etruria, modem Tuscany.9 27 amphorascan be identified in the photomosaic and two were recov-ered (SK97.066-067). Petrological analysis by D. F.Williams at the University of Southampton identifies theclay with an amphora kiln in Albinia, next to the port ofCosa. Since this is by far the dominant shape in the cargo ofWreck D, it is reasonab.le to suggest that our ship was loadedat Cosa on its way south. Wreck D, as well as the Sestiusamphoras recovered in 1989 from the trade route north ofSkerki Bank provide startling new evidence for the extentof the export trade of the Sestius family and the importance

6 McCann/Freed 1994,1-58.7 McCann/Freed 1994,61 (MJ89-29) figs. 46; 47 a-b, color fig. 16.8 SK97.053, Morel fonn 2273: J.-P. Morell Ceramique a vernis

noir du Forum Romain et du Palatin. Me!. Ecole Francr'aise RomeSuppl. 3 (Paris 1965) 147.

9 Will in McCann 1987, 182-185; 196-201.10 Will in McCann 1987,201-204.II The fluid and sediment were analyzed by E. Farrell at the Straus

Center for conservation, Harvard University Art Museums whoconcluded that the sample contained millimetre-sized vertebratebones of fish.

12 Two incomplete examples were recovered, SK97.065 and possi-bly fragment SK97.079A.. For date and origin of type see Will inMcCann 1987, 204-205. - E. L Will, Relazioni mutue tra Ieanfore romane. In: Lenoir/Mancorda/Panella 1989, 302-306. -D. P. S. Peacock/D. F. Williams, Amphorae and the Roman eco-nomy, an introductory guide (London, New York 1986) 98-101.

13 SK97.064. Compare types from Tripolitania and Campania inSciallano/Sibella 1991, Amphore de Tripolitaine ancienne.

14 SK97.061 and SK97.063 were recovered but four others are vis-ible in the photomosaic. Compare amphoras from Marseilles,Gauloise 2: F. Laubenheimer, Les amphores gauloises sous I'em-pire: recherches nouvelles sur leur production et leur chronologie.In: Lenoir/Mancorda/Panella 1989, 123-128.

15 Compare Dressel 18, Sciallano/Sibella 1991, Amphore Dressel18/Mana C2b and Amphore Mana C2c, dated at the end of thesecond century BC and beginning of the first century AD.

)6 SeeL.LonginMcCannI987,164-166.

446

AMPHORAS FROM THE DEEP SEA: ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS BETWEEN CARTHAGE AND ROMEAmphora Stlldies

Fig. 6: Amphora from Skerki Wreck D, Gauloise 2,SK97.061, from Gaul. Institute for Exploration.

(Photo: M. Hamilton).

Fig. 5: Amphora from Skerki Wreck D, DressellB,SK97.066, from Cosa. Institute for Exploration. H: 1.15 m.

(Photo: M. Hamilton).

Fig. 7: Dressel I B and GreekKoan amphoras from SkerkiWreck D, at depth of 800 m,first half of first century BC.(Photo: Institute foiExplora-tion/Woods Hole Oceano-graphic Institution).

447

A. M. MCCANN Amphm'a Studie..

Greek amphoras including six Koanjars with double-rolledhandles (fig. 7) dated in the earlier first century BC.17

ible amphora types come from both the eastern and westernMediterranean and illustrate the vitality of the mare nos-trum in the earlier first century BC. Wreck D surely de-serves further survey and excavation. The Skerki BankProject has shown that the Deep Sea indeed holds a wealthof new knowledge about ancient amphoras, trading routesand economic history.

Undoubtedly loaded at the Roman port of Cosa on theTyrrhenian coast of Italy, Wreck D expands our knowledgeabout Roman trade during the late Republic and gives thearchaeologist the first glimpse of a major shipwreck in thedeep ocean. The amphoras and other artifacts date the ship-wreck in the first half of the first century BC, providingnew evidence for the beginning of the French wine trade inthe Mediterranean. Skerki D is unique in its completenessand the variety of material preserved. The 13 different vis-

17 V. Grace, Amphoras and the Ancient Wine Trade (Princeton NJ

1979) fig. 56.

Bibliography

McCann 1987

McCann/Freed 1994

Lenoir/Mancorda/Panella 1989

ScialIano/SibelIa 1991

A. M. McCann et al., The Roman Port and Fishery of Cosa. A Center of AncientTrade (Princeton NJ 1987).

A. M. McCann/J. Freed, Deep Water Archaeology. A Late-Roman Ship fromCarthage and an Ancient Trade Route near Skerki Bank off Sicily. Journal RomanArch. Suppl. 13 (Ann Arbor MI 1994).

M. Lenoir/D. Mancorda/C. Pan.ella (eds.), Amphores romaines et histoire econo-mique: dix ans de recherche. Actes CoIl. Sienne, 22-24 mai 1986. Collect. EcoleFran~aise Rome 114 (Rome 1989).

M. Sciallano/P. Sibella, Amphores: Comment les identifier? (Aix-en-Provence 1991).

448