Late Roman Shipwreck on Spanish Chapel

Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archeology ^ | by 2009 | Tony Marciniec

[SunkenCiv]

Just off the west coast of the Bodrum peninsula, southwest of an island called Yassiada, there is a submerged reef appropriately referred to by some as The Ship Trap. About A.D. 626, in the reign of Emperor Heraclius, when the Persians and the Avars were laying siege to Constantinople, the capital of the East Roman Empire, the reef claimed another victim, a small ship bearing in its hold a cargo of nearly a thousand wine amphorae. For more than thirteen centuries the shipwreck lay on the seabed until it was discovered by Kemal Aras, a Turkish diver, who then showed it to Peter Throckmorton, an American photo-journalist and diver in 1958...

The shipwreck was excavated in a scientific manner between 1961 and 1964 by a team headed by George Bass, with Oguz Alpozen, the current museum director, joining the team in 1962...

The name of Giorgios Presbyteros Naukleros found on one of the ship's steelyards suggests that this presbyter of the church was the owner/merchant and perhaps also the captain of the ship and it is most likely that the complete set of Byzantine weights -- one pound, six ounces, three ounces, two ounces and one ounce -- was his property. Since the ship sank quite close to the land it is quite possible that those aboard were able to swim ashore and were saved, but their inability to salvage the ship and its cargo has given us the opportunity to extend our knowledge of the east Mediterranean world in the seventh century.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

Intact 5th century merchant ship found in Istanbul
Past Horizons | Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Posted on 09/03/2011 12:13:20 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2773170/posts

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
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[Tainan]

I have been waiting for that vino delivery...a long...long...long time....:(

[Tainan]

Well, of course, what is extremely significant is the retrieval of the Byzantine weights. This allows significant insight into much of the market system of the time.

[BlackElk]

SunkenCiv:

I am usually too tied up with politics here to remember to say so but I really appreciate all your efforts to post archaeological articles and information here and to make Free Republic an even more fascinating and informative and worthwhile website.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BlackElk!

[Bigg Red]

Ditto! What BlackElk said. Thanks so much.

[wildbill]

Anyone ever notice just how much wine was being transported in ancient times. I know that amphorae were among the most likely goods to last to the present day—but look at how many ships that divers find today were filled to the scuppers with wine.

Contrast that to the Spaniard many centuries later where you find large shipments of gold and jewels.

You seldom hear of the discovery of a ancient ship with lots of treasure—although you always hear about the Romans looting the countries they conquered and maintaining a sometimes ruinous tax burden against their provinces. Some Roman governors were notorious for using their tax policies and authority to enrich themselves.

So what happened to all the sunken gelt, the moolah, the shekels, the gold and the statues? I know Sophia Loren found a statue that let her win the National Greek Wet T-Shirt contest once, but seriously, why so little treasure???

Just sayin’