In an ancient wreck over 600 meters deep in the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea between Elba and Pianosa the Department of Humanistic Studies of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice has discovered amphorae and other precious finds from the Roman era thanks to deep sea robots made available by the Azionemare Foundation, which had identified the wreck together with two other ancient wrecks.
The wreck “From 27“, as it was named by underwater archaeologists, located in over 600 meters deep between theElba Island andIsland of Pianosacontained tiles, couples And amphorae. “Dae” is an abbreviation of “Daedalus“, the name of the foundation’s catamaran used for the wreck searches. The robots used for the recovery of these materials were two ROV abyssalcalled “Multi-Pluto” And “Pluto Ball“, developed by Guido Gayfounder of Azionemare and discoverer of many wrecks. The ROVs were made available to the university by the foundation itself. Among the recovered finds are a tile, aDressel amphora 1 and a jug, dating back to between the 2nd and 1st century BCthe final stages of therepublican era of Rome.
The success of the research on Dae 27 has prompted researchers to focus on two other ancient wrecks of the Tyrrhenian Seaalso identified by Azionemare. The investigations focused on the wrecks From 7 And From 39The first wreck is located at over 400 meters deep near theGorgona Islandand consists of a load of Greco-Italic amphorae from the 4th-3rd century BCunfortunately partially damaged by trawling. The Greco-Italic amphorae were produced in southern Italy in the Republican age, for the transport of wine. The second wreck, not far away, located at almost 600 meters deepis well preserved, and is composed of a load of Dressel 1B amphorae from the 1st century BC One of the amphorae, together with a jug, was recovered with the help of the ROV.
All the finds recovered by the robots are currently under study. A photogrammetric digital survey to create a 3D load modeluseful to archaeologists to analyze the boats as a whole. The research project was born from the fruitful collaboration between the University of Venice and the Azionemare Foundation, which each made available multidisciplinary knowledge for the protection of submerged archaeological heritage.
