Intact Galley from Roman Times Found

By tony leather, 18th Aug 2012 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/3abztmvn/
Posted in Wikinut>News>Environment

It seems that this astoundingly well-preserved vessel sank about 2,000 years ago en route between Spain and Italy - loaded with a full cargo of over 200 amphorae.

Intact Galley from Roman Times Found

Roman find

In a truly amazing archaeological discovery by remote operated diving vehicle, in the sea some 18 miles from the Italian town of Genova, an almost intact Roman ship - - a navis oneraria - merchant vessel, has been found about 200 feet down, thanks tips from fishermen who had snagged some jars in their nets as they trawled.

It seems that this astoundingly well-preserved vessel sank about 2,000 years ago en route between Spain and Italy - loaded with a full cargo of over 200 amphorae, jars which tests have shown contained pickled fish, grain, wine and oil most of them still sealed and food filled.

Thought to date to sometime between 1st Century B.C. and 1st Century A.D., this stunning craft was buried under layers of seabed mud, leaving the wreck and cargo intact for the most part, though the location will be guarded undisturbed until Italian authorities decide whether to raise it or not, which hopefully they soon will.

Following that tip, it was police divers who used that ROV to locate the ship, thought to date back to when Julius Caesar and his imperial heirs were the Roman rulers. There is great excitement in the archaeological community, because the presence of so many intact containers from antiquity offers the chance to get a really good glimpse of what life was like in those times.

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Meet the author

tony leather
mainly non-fiction articles, though I do write short stories, poetry and descriptive prose as well. Have been writing for over ten years now