A joint mission organized by underwater archaeologists from Italy and France was lately deployed to the location of the Capo Corso 2 shipwreck, which was first noticed in 2012 and is positioned at a depth of 1,150 ft (350) meters close to the coast of Corsica to the south of France. Throughout distant excavations of the ship, the archaeologists recovered a formidable assortment of high-quality unfinished glass and ornate Roman glassware in varied varieties, Italy’s National Superintendency for Underwater Cultural Heritage reports.

That is solely the second Mediterranean shipwreck with a cargo made up completely of glass ever discovered, and the lack of this cargo would have represented a major monetary loss to the sponsors of the voyage.

Primarily based on the looks of the ship, the archaeologists imagine it could have been constructed and wrecked someday between the late first century and the early second century AD. The Capo Corso 2 was a Roman service provider vessel, and at this level its route of journey on the time of its sinking has not been conclusively decided.

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A Spectacular Cargo Meets a Tragic Finish

The workforce of Italian and French archaeologists started their exploration of the Capo Corso 2 with a photogrammetric survey. This process was designed to gather photographic proof concerning the present state of the shipwreck web site, to evaluate how sedimentation and probably human actions may need affected it.

With this important info in hand, they had been then capable of safely dispatch a remotely operated car (ROV) known as Arthur to the underside of the ocean. After taking movies of the glass items strewn about throughout the ocean ground, the ROV collected quite a few samples of those artifacts to carry again to the floor. These samples featured nothing however glass in each uncooked and labored type, and high-resolution imagery produced no proof of some other cargo besides glassware.

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View of the Roman wreck which has a cargo solely of glassware. (M.Añò-V.Creuze-D.Degez / Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo)

Many of the Capo Corso 2’s glass was unworked and had been transported in uncooked blocks for later processing. The glass blocks got here in an assortment of sizes and colours, and would have been transformed into high-quality glassware if that they had reached their ultimate vacation spot.

The archaeologists know that is what would have occurred, because the ship’s cargo included hundreds of items of glass desk and kitchenware that had already gone by way of such a conversion. Along with accumulating just a few uncooked glass blocks, the ROV known as Arthur recovered complete and partial items of cups, bottles, plates, bowls and different assorted glass vessels. The car additionally got here again carrying two massive bronze basins and several other small Roman Empire-era jugs generally known as amphorae.

The ROV, Arthur, was managed from the boat on the floor to gather the fragile glass objects. (M.Añò-V.Creuze-D.Degez / Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo)

At this level, no indicators of any skeletal stays have been found. It’s doable that the crew escaped earlier than the ship sunk, however with out with the ability to rescue any of their prized cargo. Tons of glass stays on the underside of the ocean, making a spectacular web site for underwater archaeologists to survey, {photograph} and excavate remotely.

An Archaeological Mission Enabled by Diplomacy and ROV Know-how

The newly launched examine of the ship was carried out by archaeologists from two government-sponsored organizations: the Nationwide Superintendency for Underwater Cultural Heritage on the Italian facet, and the Département des Recherches Archéologiques subaquatiques et sous-marine, or Drassm, on the French facet. An professional in historic glassmaking from the French Nationwide Institute for Preventive Archaeological Analysis (INRAP), Souen Fontaine, has now been recruited to assist with the evaluation of the recovered Roman glassware.

When the shipwreck was first found 11 years in the past, it was believed to be in French territorial waters, due to its proximity to Corsica. However in 2016, diplomatically-negotiated modifications within the sea borders separating French and Italian waters transferred authority over the location to Italy. At the moment the 2 international locations agreed to launch a joint exploration mission, and it was solely this July that the primary go to to the location of the shipwreck passed off.

To offer the brand new mission a most likelihood of success, the French Ministry of Tradition assigned its major analysis vessel, the Alfred Merlin, to the shipwreck web site. This ship is supplied with two ROVs, of which Arthur was probably the most superior.

This underwater-exploring robotic can attain the extraordinary depth of 8,200 ft (2,500 meters), in distinction to human divers that may by no means go previous 1,000 ft (300 meters). Arthur has the uncommon capability to shoot high-definition video, even at these excessive depths, and can also be capable of vacuum up sediment from the ocean ground to recuperate objects hidden inside.

Arthur’s gripper claws had been designed to deal with fragile artifacts gently, which is why “he” was capable of recuperate so many items of high-quality glassware along with a number of uncooked glass blocks.

ROV Arthur, was deployed to gather the glass.(M.Añò-V.Creuze-D.Degez / Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo)

Secrets and techniques of the Roman Glassware Commerce Revealed

The Italian and French archaeologists are pretty sure the vessel sunk within the late first to early second century AD, but they are going to be doing an in-depth evaluation of the recovered artifacts to confirm this conclusion. Whereas they’ll’t say for certain the place the ship was going primarily based on the underwater particles subject they’ve recognized, they strongly suspect it was destined to land on the French Provençal coast, after initially leaving from a port within the Center East. This conclusion relies on the sort and amount of the glass blocks and tableware objects recovered, which contained samples that hyperlink it to Lebanon or Syria.

Whatever the specifics of the Capo Corso 2’s commerce route, the Romans had been accountable for all this territory within the first two centuries of the primary millennium. So the Mediterranean commerce in glassware throughout this time interval was very a lot integrated within the huge Roman financial empire.

Many future visits to the location of the 1,900-year-old shipwreck are deliberate, as ROV know-how will give archaeologists unprecedented entry to a deep-sea web site that might in any other case be tough to achieve.

Prime picture: Assortment of Roman glassware collected from the wreck web site. Supply: ManuelAñò-ProdAqua / Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo

By Nathan Falde