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della Dott.ssa Giuliana Galli - estratto dal Vol. XLVII di Archeologia Classica (Universitą degli Studi di Roma "LA SAPIENZA" - 1995)
In june 1991, in the harbour of Ponza, the voluntary team A.S.S.O., with his president M.Mazzoli, excavated an ancient shipwreck which lay a few metres from the harbour quay at about 6,5 m. depth.
The site had been damaged, unintentionally, by the continual anchoring of ferries, fishing-boats and pleasure craft.
For this reason, on the few remaining pieces of planking was found a clear layer of mixed material, including many intrusive finds of recent period which have made it difficult to date the wreck exactly.
The excavation was, accordingly, carried out by removing these sub-deposits in blocks over an area 8x5 m., so as to reach the wood quickly.
The wreck was orientated north-west, at 315°; despite the damage it had suffered in places, it was of striking mass and dimensions, with planking assembled by mortise-and-tenon joints. The frames, of which 27 were found, are on average 210 mm. thick (moulded) and 190 mm. broad (sided). The strakes are, on average, 60 mm. thick and 210 mm. broad (see the report of A.S.S.O. for the Archaeological Superintendency of Latium).
The pottery recovered during the excavation, albeit unassociated and of widely varying date, consists mostly of tableware and transport amphoras of different types belonging to the period 3rd century BC to 4th century AD (Galli 1995).
These are pieces of coarse pottery (casserole, cf. Ostia III.2, fig. 182, and two-handled jar of Augustan date), black-glaze ware (base of a Lamboglia 27 cup), terra sigillata italica (a cup, stamped in a rectangular cartouche ATEI, of form Goudineau 37A/Ritterling 5B, and another of similar form with a double, superimposed stamp OFVOSI/TITI), and transport amphoras (forms Dressel 1A, Dressel 2-4, Dressel 8 - with a cursive titulus pictus, very eroded, (MEN ?)ANDRI SILETOP(...)- Dressel 17, Ramon 18 and Dressel 38).
One interesting item is part of the neck of a "candlestick" flask with reddish orange glaze, as published by Duncan (1964).
Other important objects found, not in situ, are part of the bilge-pump system used in the Roman period, between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD:
- a wooden cylinder, slightly waisted, with, fitted longitudinally inside it, a bronze bearing, 145 mm. long, 70 mm. wide (this must have served as a horizontal roller such as in the reconstruction of a bilge-pump made by Carre and Jezegou (1984:139, fig. 18);
- a bronze bearing, lacking its wooden coverig, 140 mm. long, 65 mm. wide (probably beloged to the toothed wheel which moved the discs of the pump);
- a wooden disc, fitted with a stubby bronze bearing; the bearing measures are 21x31 mm. (blocking device?).
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Dr Zarattini A:, of the Superintendency of Latium, for her permission to publish these objects, to Dr. Gianfrotta P.A. for his valuable suggestions.
Copyright © "L'ERMA" di Bretschneider - Roma - 1997 - Tutti i diritti riservati
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