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Lost Ships of Rome


guy

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Here is an interesting video about the discovery of sunken Roman ships:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C1HBR0IbcmM#

 

In 2009, a team of marine archaeologists carrying out a sonar survey of the seabed around the Italian island of Ventotene made an astonishing discovery. The wrecks of five ancient Roman ships were found in pristine condition. Remarkably, much of the cargo remained exactly as the ancient Roman crews had loaded it, suggesting that these ships had not capsized but had gone to the bottom of the sea intact and upright. What happened to these ancient ships?

 

What were they carrying and why had they traveled to this remote, rocky island in the first place? The team is returning to Ventotene to investigate the wrecks, with the blessing of the Italian government.

 

The island where this

Edited by guy
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The 'official' Aurora website seems to be long on what they do, where they go and the headline finds but suprisingly light on information about what was actualy learnt from their discoveries. :(

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A nice documentary, but I suspect that it was more for show than anything else, none of the find the found were actually "true treasures".

 

Thanks for the ling Guy!

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I enjoyed the documentary. Thanks for posting. A few years ago a number of Roman ships were found near the train station ( ancient harbor area). What's become of them? As I remember, they were full of well preserved wares, ship equipment.

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Sorry for the omission. I meant to ask about the ships found near the train station in Pisa, Italy. Has anyone visited the museum constructed to show the Pisan vessels?

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Diving to those depths greatly restricts what the divers can actually do.

 

Would the 2000 years in the sea completely empty the amphorae(sp??) of all traces of what would have been in them?

 

I think I posted this link to an abstract fo a paper on Science Direct a few months back but in case I haven't recent research seems to indicate that some evidence can still be found of the DNA of amphorae contents even after centuries underwater:

 

Ancient DNA trapped in the matrices of ceramic transport jars from Mediterranean shipwrecks can reveal the goods traded in the earliest markets. ...
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