|
|
| August 10, 2012 | 2,000-year-old Roman era ship with food intact discovered off Italy | |
London: Divers claim to have found a ship off the coast of Italy, which they believe is about 2,000 years old. The ship, which was spotted in the sea off the town on Varazze in the province of Liguria, is believed to be a Roman-era commercial vessel. The ship, a navis oneraria, or merchant vessel, was spotted at a depth of about 200 feet after a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was used to scour the
seabed. A search for the shipwreck was launched after local fisherman said that
they kept finding pieces of pottery in their nets. The divers found the wreck
so well preserved that even the food was intact in the still sealed over 200 pots.
“The peculiarity of this is that the wreck could be almost intact,” the Daily
Mail quoted Lt Col Francesco Schilardi of the police divers’ group as telling
the BBC. “We believe it dates to sometime between the 1st Century BC and the 1st
Century AD,” he said. Test carried on some of the recovered jars revealed they
contained pickled fish, grain, wine and oil. The foodstuffs were probably traded
in Spain for other goods. The containers found in the wreck are known as amphora,
and are unique shapes, that often contained handles. The large containers were
generally used to transport large quantities of food and wine, and were able to
hold both solid and liquid. The samples found in the latest wreck were ceramic,
but they were also made in metal. “There are some broken jars around the wreck,
but we believe that most of the amphorae inside the ship are still sealed and
food filled,” Lt. Col. Schilardi said. It is hoped that further tests on the foodstuffs
would provide an insight into Roman lifestyles. The ship is hidden under layers
of mud on the seabed, which has left the wreck and its cargo intact. The vessel
will remain hidden at the bottom of the sea until Italian authorities decide whether
or not to raise it, and police have placed an exclusion zone around it to protect
it from other divers.
|
|
|
|
Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Gujarat
Puducherry
|
