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A Roman-era shipwreck on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca was carrying a cargo of extremely prized fish sauce when it sank round 1,700 years in the past, a brand new examine finds.
The Ses Fontanelles wreck lies in shallow water just a few hundred ft from the seashore close to Les Meravelles, a resort city about 4 miles (6 kilometers) southeast of Palma, the capital of Mallorca (additionally spelled Majorca), the place it was found after a storm in 2019.
Previous archaeological studies recommend the ship originated from or close to the Spanish port of Cartagena — generally known as “Carthago Spartania” to the Romans — however sank due to unknown circumstances within the fourth century.
The most recent examine, revealed March 21 within the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, reviews essentially the most detailed evaluation of the wreck but. It reveals that lots of the 300 sealed pottery jugs, or amphorae, within the ship’s cargo contained fish sauce constructed from anchovies — a delicacy identified in Latin as “liquamen.”
It is uncommon to search out such a well-preserved wreck from this era, mentioned examine lead writer Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros, director of the College of Barcelona’s Institute of Archaeology and a analysis professor for ICREA, the Catalan Establishment for Analysis and Superior Research.
“It’s the solely Late Roman shipwreck we all know of so removed from the world of Carthago Spartania [and] one of some from the fourth century within the Mediterranean,” he instructed Reside Science.
Roman wreck
As a result of the wreck lies in shallow water — a mean of roughly 8 ft (2.4 m) beneath the floor — it was tough to research amid the waves crashing close to the shore. “It makes issues very sophisticated when the ocean is barely shifting,” Cau mentioned.
He thinks the remarkable preservation of the wreck and its many natural gadgets — which might normally rot away rapidly — was in all probability as a result of the ship was instantly buried by sand and different sediments after it sank.
Along with the amphorae, archaeologists discovered ropes, footwear, a wood drill and natural “dunnage” or matting, constructed from vine shoots and grass, that was used to guard the ship’s hull from the cargo, Cau mentioned.
Lots of the amphorae nonetheless include residues of the substances they held; and the newest examine used fuel chromatography and different analytical strategies to create a snapshot of Mediterranean commerce within the fourth century, he mentioned.
Lots of the amphorae contained the remnants of fish sauce, whereas others held oil from crops — doubtless olives, wine, and maybe olives preserved in vinegar. The distinctive amphorae for various merchandise had been labeled with painted inscriptions generally known as “tituli picti” in Latin, he mentioned.
“The presence of so many painted inscriptions on the amphorae make us assume that this was a standard observe,” Cau mentioned.
Valuable cargo
Earlier research discovered that lots of the oil amphorae had seals stamped with a “Chrismon,” or Christian monogram — much like the Chi-Rho symbol of Constantine — which recommended they could have been marketed by a church authority, Cau mentioned.
In one other key discovery, the wood “step” connecting the mast to the hull was discovered to include a coin from Roman Siscia (in modern-day Croatia), in keeping with Roman rituals for blessing a ship. The coin was made in the course of the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine the Nice and glued the earliest potential date of the ship as A.D. 320.
“This matches properly with all of the archaeological examine of the supplies recovered within the excavation that recommend that the boat sank across the mid-fourth century,” Cau mentioned.
The traditional Romans had been large followers of fish sauce and loved several different types. Essentially the most well-known could also be “garum,” which appears to have been a luxurious product constructed from fermented fish viscera (guts) and blood, however “liquamen” appears to have been constructed from entire fish.
The archaeological evaluation discovered fragments of fish bones in a few of the amphorae from the Ses Fontanelles wreck, which indicated the “liquaminis flos” they had been labelled as holding — Latin for liquamen “flower,” which can have meant “finest liquamen” — was made largely from anchovies however contained some sardines.
