Posted on 11/11/2023 9:28:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Researchers exploring the waters off the Greek Island of Kefallinia have unearthed one of the largest Roman-era shipwrecks ever found.
As Julia Buckley reports for CNN, a team from Greece's University of Patras located the remains of the ship, as well as its cargo of 6,000 amphorae—ceramic jugs used for shipping—while conducting a sonar scan of the area. The 110-foot-long vessel, newly detailed in the Journal of Archaeological Science, was situated at a depth of 197 feet.
According to the paper, the "Fiscardo" wreck (named after a nearby fishing port) was one of several identified during cultural heritage surveys undertaken in the region between 2013 and 2014...
The vessel is among the four largest Roman shipwrecks found in the Mediterranean Sea to date; experts think the ship is the largest ever unearthed in the eastern Mediterranean.
Based on the type of amphorae found in the Fiscardo ship's cargo, the team dates the wreck to sometime between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D... Four other major Roman wrecks are scattered across the surrounding sea...
...Over the summer, researchers in Cyprus discovered the first "undisturbed" Roman shipwreck ever found in that nation. Located off the coast of Protaras, the ship probably carried oil or wine and came from the Roman provinces of Syria and Cilicia.
And last month, Greek archaeologists identified five new shipwrecks off the island of Kasos, including one dated to the end of the fourth century B.C. and another from the first century B.C. A third ship was dated to the later Byzantine period, while the remaining two were linked with the Greek War of Independence, which took place during the 1820s.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
bkmk
Glad you liked it. It’s interesting (and logical) that the merchant vessels had a deep draft for carrying capacity, not for speed (warfare) and therefore could not be near the coastline.
Imagine docking those big, heavily laden, cumbersome sailing ships with crude square sails. Once close to the dock, the oars were obviously not much use on the dock side of the ship. And there were no motorized tenders or tugs. That had to be quite a feat.
I was thinking of this scene when I said “A Woman?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx_G2a2hL6U
Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt built an oared catamaran so large each oar required 40 rowers. But I don't think it ever left the harbor. Similarly, Caligula's barges were immense.
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