The Roman ship of Marausa ( it, Nave romana di Marausa) is the wreck of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

merchant ship from the third century AD which was discovered about 150 metres off the coast from

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an impor ...

Description

In August 1999, a number of members of the Archeoclub of Trapani reported the remains of a

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

. It proved to be the remains of a large Roman ship from the third century AD, which had been wrecked at a depth of a little more than two metres, near the beach at Marausa, one of the ''

frazioni A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist era (1922–1943) as ...

'' (hamlets) of the

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

(city council) of Trapani. The wreck was excavated and recovered in 2011 and its restoration was carried out by the "Legni e Segni della Memoria" ("Wood and Signs of Memory") society of

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

. The ship had a well-preserved cargo and was around 27 metres long and 9 metres wide, making it the largest wreck from the period ever recovered from Italian waters. It was originally wrecked in the shallows while attempting to enter the

Birgi Birgi is a small town located in the Ödemiş district of İzmir province in Turkey. Its current name is a distortion of its medieval Greek name, Pyrgion (Greek: Πυργίον, meaning "Little Tower"). History In antiquity, the town was known ...

, which was a navigable river in Roman times. The double central

kelson The keelson or kelson is a reinforcing structural member on top of the keel in the hull of a wooden vessel. In part V of “Song of Myself”, American poet Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an Ame ...

of the ship was recovered, making it possible to reconstruct the structure of the deck, which consisted of staggered off-set platforms. The ribbing of ash wood was located between the ship's external shell (made of ash wood) and the decking. The cargo consisted of cylindrical African

amphorae An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

Recovery and display

The

soprintendenza The Ministry of Culture ( it, Ministero della Cultura - MiC) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the ''monuments historiques''. MiC's headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (via ...

of cultural goods of Trapani planned a project to conserve the ship and display it in , which is located on an island near the site of the wreck and was being converted into a museum at the time. The project cost a total of €7,300,000, supplied by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. In September 2015, the Sicilian regional government decided to transfer the ship to the , sparking harsh criticism from the city council of Trapani. The move was carried out anyway and the ship has been displayed at the museum in Marsala since 18 December 2015.

References

Bibliography

* Maria Bollini, ''Il porto romano e le flotte'', Adriapress, 2005 {{Portal, Ancient Rome, History 1999 archaeological discoveries Ancient Roman ships Ancient shipwrecks Archaeological discoveries in Italy Roman archaeology Ships preserved in museums Trapani

Description

Recovery and display

See also

References

Bibliography