A spate of shipwrecks recently
found near a group of Greek islands has given researchers new insights into how
trade routes and sailing technology evolved in the Eastern Mediterranean. And
with more exploration planned, additional discoveries are still
likely.
Over a stretch of two weeks in
September, tips from local fishermen and sponge divers led a team of Greek and
American archaeologists to the precise locations of 22 shipwrecks in a
17-square-mile area around the Fourni archipelago in the eastern
Aegean.
The find is remarkable both for
the sheer number of wrecks in the small area and the range of time periods the
vessels came from.
The earliest wreck dates to the
Archaic Period (700-480 B.C.), while the most recent is from the Late Medieval
Period (16th century A.D.). Ships from the Classical Period (480-323 B.C.) and
the Hellenistic Period (323-31 B.C.) were also found, though a majority—12 of
the 22—sailed and sank at some point during the Late Roman Period (300-600
A.D.)
“It’s an extremely rich area,”
says Greek director George Koutsouflakis, an archaeologist with the Hellenic
Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities.
Finding 22 shipwrecks in only two weeks is incredibly rare, but more discoveries in the area are likely—the team has surveyed only 5 percent of Fourni’s coasts, and local fishermen have given them many more tips.
All the ships were merchant
vessels traversing a route that connected Anatolia, Samos, and the Black Sea
region to Rhodes, Cyprus, and even Egypt. Wooden ships generally decompose
underwater or get eaten by seaworms. But their cargo—ancient clay storage jars
called amphorae—survive. Each ship was carrying several hundred amphorae. By
assessing the size and shape of the jars, archaeologists can infer where and
when they were made.
Residue or DNA analysis will
confirm what they contained, but the primary goods are not in
doubt.
“We know from comparable
shipwrecks and terrestrial sites that the three major goods would have been
olive oil, wine, and fish sauce,” says Jeffrey Royal, a co-director from the
Florida-based RPM Nautical Foundation.
These bulk items were likely
stored in the larger amphorae, while smaller ones might have held jams, fruits,
honey, hazelnuts, almonds, as well as luxury commodities like
perfumes.
Many merchant crews in the
Classical Period were composed of 10 to 15 sailors. By the Late Roman Period
advances in sailing technology, such as lateen sails that ran from fore to aft,
reduced crews to as few as five to seven people. Unlike the famous Greek and
Roman warships known as triremes, the smaller merchant ships derived power
primarily from sails rather than banks of rowers.
Some of the ships around Fourni
appear to have encountered sudden storms and strong winds that smashed them
against cliffs and rock formations in shallow water.
“You can look at the spatial
patterning of the sites and reconstruct a plausible story about what happened,”
says Peter Campbell, a co-director of the project from the University of
Southampton. “It looks like some of them were anchored behind cliffs to shelter
from a northwest wind, but this made them vulnerable to a southern wind that
drove them against the cliffs.”
The ancient sailors’ chances of
survival would have been slight. “Of the 22 wrecks we studied, there were
probably four where they might have had a chance to swim to a beach or shore.
But most of the spots were next to sheer cliffs. There’s no way they would’ve
survived in a storm,” Campbell says.
The archaeologists have only
begun to analyze the material they collected from the shipwrecks in September,
but the abundance of late Roman ships is already striking. They suspect that
this apparent spike in traffic may be linked to the rise of Constantinople and
the Eastern Roman Empire in the fourth century. They expect their ongoing
research to answer many specific questions about ancient maritime trade networks
and how they related to the shifting political structures of the Eastern
Mediterranean.
Fourni was already known to some
smugglers before this September’s survey. Locals had reported seeing suspicious
activity in the water near certain sites, and the archaeologists found some
evidence of looting when they dove the wrecks.
Pinpointing exact locations for
22 of the area’s shipwrecks will make it easier for Greek authorities to
supervise the sites. The archaeologists also hope that the knowledge gained
during excavations will give local communities a stronger sense of connection to
their history.
“An engaged local population is
the best form of protection,” Campbell says.
By Nick Romeo
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