![Bardo Satyre Mahdia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Bardo_Satyre_Mahdia.JPG)
The shipwreck of Mahdia was found by Greek
sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...
fishermen off the coast of
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
in June 1907. The
shipwreck near the modern town of
Mahdia
Mahdia ( ar, المهدية ') is a Tunisian coastal city with 62,189 inhabitants, south of Monastir and southeast of Sousse.
Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax
Sfax (; ar, صفاقس, Ṣafāqis ) is a city in Tunisia, located ...
is dated about the 80s BC, or even later.
In a series of underwater campaigns numerous items were recovered and placed on display at the
Musée National du Bardo, Tunis. The greater part of the sculptures were salvaged between 1907 and 1913 by French archaeologist
Alfred Merlin
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*'' Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interl ...
, at that time Director of Antiquities in the Protectorate of Tunisia.
Further, survey work on the site was done by a team led by Mensun Bound, but unfortunately no further excavations have been possible.
Cargo
The ship was presumably driven by a storm onto the north African coast en route from
Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...
, the port of Athens, to Italy, as it was carrying Greek works of art intended for Roman purchasers, marble and bronze sculptures, high-quality furniture fittings, decorative items and architectural elements. These were later restored by researchers from the
Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
The Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, or LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, is a museum in Bonn, Germany, run by the Rhineland Landscape Association. It is one of the oldest museums in the country. In 2003 it completed an extensive renovation. The museum has a n ...
in Germany. There were also several dozen heavy marble columns and parts of catapults.
It has been generally thought that the marble columns were removed and shipped by order of
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force.
Sulla had t ...
after his
sacking of Athens in 86 BC. None of the epic-scaled Homeric figures that gained popularity in the 1st century BC were to be found, nor any copies of Classical works of the 5th century, as Nikolaus Himmelmann pointed out, contrasting the Mahdia cargo with the similar cargo of the somewhat later
Antikythera ship. Recovered were a marble bust probably of
Ariadne
Ariadne (; grc-gre, Ἀριάδνη; la, Ariadne) was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for having ...
, two large-scale bronzes, a
herm figure of a turbaned
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
, inscribed with the name of its maker, Boëthos of
Chalcedon
Chalcedon ( or ; , sometimes transliterated as ''Chalkedon'') was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari (modern Üsküdar) and it is now a district of the cit ...
, and a lithe, winged olive-wreathed boy, identified by scholars as Agon or
Eros Enagonios, Eros as lord of contests, a bronze bust of Ariadne, and two bronze statuettes of dancing dwarfs.
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Among five smaller bronzes, found at the site in 1910, was the satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...
illustrated at right. The site also contained lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
objects, including anchors, tubes and plates,[Hartmut Kutzke, Bruno Barbier, Petra Becker and Gerhard Eggert, " Barstowite as a corrosion product on a lead object from the Mahdia Shipwreck", ''Studies in Conservation'' 42.3 (1997:176-180).] and ingots that, according to their isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) ...
-composition, seem to come from the Sierra de Cartagena in Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
See also
*List of shipwrecks
This is an index of lists of shipwrecks, sorted by different criteria.
By location
* List of shipwrecks of Africa
* List of shipwrecks of Asia
* List of shipwrecks of Europe
** List of shipwrecks of France
** List of shipwrecks of the Unit ...
References
Further reading
* Fuchs, Werner, ''Der Schiffsfund von Mahdia'' (Tübingen, 1963)
* Hellenkemper-Salies G., Prittwitz Η.-Η., Gaffron und Gerhard Bauchheuß (eds.) 1994. ''Das Wrack. Der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia'', Katalog des Rheinischen Landesmuseums Bonn, 2 Bd. (Köln, 1994).
* Merlin Α., 1908, ''Bulletin de la société nationale des antiquaires de France'' 1908, 128-131.
External links
* http://www.deguwa.org/?id=40
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahdia Shipwreck
1907 in Tunisia
Ancient shipwrecks
Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea
Archaeology of shipwrecks
shipwreck