Assonet- Underwater Archaeology - A river of history

A RIVER OF HISTORY

by Mario Mazzoli (A.S.S.O.) - published on MONDO SOMMERSO Magazine - 1993, November

There is no trace of clear water in the Garigliano, which is a far cry from the common concept of a river and resembles instead an open-air sewer. Its waters are udes manly for industrial and irrigation purposes and along its course are a number of power-stations and even an elctronuclear plant, which is no longer in operation. Yet, this plant, which was strongly opposed by environmental associations, is said to contain a huge amount of extremely dangerous radioactive material.

The river course is dotted whit hot springs: at Sujo, in particular, you can find the Vescinee waters, which where mentioned also by Pliny and were very popular throughout the Roman Empire.

Thanks to its highly diversified geomorphological features, the Garigliano basin ha alwais attracted man. The river and surrounding area have therefore witnessed historic settlements and battles. A list of only the most "recent" events includes the creation of an Arabian colony near the river mouth in 880, the fights between the Spanish and the French in 1503, Murat's defeat in the battle against tha Austrians in 1815.
In 1860, the Piedmontese crossed the river after having defeated the Bourbons and the Allied troops landed at Salerno fiercely fought against the German army in 1948.

Yet, what most interests us for our archaelogical research is that the Garigliano has alwais been a major trade route towards the interior. Consequently, stationary structures have been bulit along its course ever since the pre-Roman age. One of the most outstanding works is undoubtedly tha ancient town of Minturnae: erected by the Ausones to act as a stronghold by virtue of its strategical position, it was first sacked and then turned into a colony by the Romans in 295 B.C.

Particurarly interesting are also the layout of an old road, whic was subsequently used for the Roman Appian Way, and the waterworks, which took the spring water of the Spigno Saturnia situated nearby. Last but not least, the Sancuary dedicated to Dea Marica, the goddess of Water anf Light.

The Garigliano has been devoted comparatively more attention by underwater archaelogists than other Italian rivers. In 1996 and 1967, an important US mission led by archaelogists Dominque Ruegg (including also H. Hoskins of the University of Chicago, J. Huston, President of Council of Underwater Archaelogy, R. Harris and G. Kapitaen) explored a large part of the river. Besides performing important trials and studies by means of the mud-pingerthat had just been invented by Dr. H. Edgerton of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, this mission contributed to increasing the knowledge about the final stretch of the river thanks to extraordinarily precise and accurate surveys.

Other US missions followed in the eighties, which confirmed the stunning richness of the river: archaelogists found and recovered numerous fragments of buildings, statuettes, terracotta objects, pottery for domestic use, amphorae, medical and toilet instruments, bronze keys, locks, buckles and rings in bronze and gold, coins.
The latter must have been as widespread in ancient times as they are today, judging from the variety of the items found: Greek, Republican, of the Early, Middle, Later Roman Empire.

In 1988, Marco Vitelli and I took a survey in an area adjacent to an old bridge tha was built under the Bourbons. We were assisted by the divers' section of the former Bacoli-based Archeoclub (Biagio Carannante, Giovanni Scamardella and Sabatino Testa). Our surveys confirmed the typology of finds we have previously described: also that area abounded with coins, keys, locks, pins, fragments of buildings; we also recovered a stone bowl and the fragment of a golden earring. At the same time, however, we found a confirmation of the uniinterrupted work of clandestine "archaelogist".

From the postwar period onwards, these have been plundering the river quite systematically, causing severe damages to its bed. They have even removed blocks of the river bottom, which have been subsequently broken into small pieces, revealing their archaelogical contents. Another expedition was organised in June 1992 involving Francesco Paolo Arata, an archaeologist in charge of the scientific aspects of the mission, Piero Dell'Amico, archaelogist, Andrea Fogliuzzi and Alessandro Spadaro, professional divers, Marco Viteli, underwater archaelogy technician and underwater photographer, Mario Mazzoli, honorary inspector of the Archaelogical Monuments Service for Latium, Coastal Area and Islands.

This survey, as Dr. Arata - who works as an Archaelogical Supervisor of the Capitoline Museums - confirmed, aimed at "establishing the archaelogical richness of some areas of interest including also the one opposite the Temple of Marica Goddes, which had never been explored systematically". Considering the enormous difficulty in diving into that area due to the total lack of visibility and to the presence of dangerous objects, the members of the expedition decided to perform an instruments survey using a high-definition Side Scan Sonar, which also enabled them to gather additional information about the river bottom. The analisys of the results led to the identification of about forty anomalous areas, which were the explored one by one.

From a technical point of view, diving was made difficult mainly by the water pollution, by the current and by the lack of visibility. We have no certain data about the environmental state of the river. Yet, you definitely don't need to have a lively imagination to guess what such data can be, judging from the river's very bade state of health. In addition to the main causes of pollution typical of all our rivers, such as sewers and industrial waste, there is also a whole variety of scraps, cars, fish traps, nets and trees, which certainly don't make the work of divers easier.

Divers wore tight diving suits and helmets, which were rinsed and soked in a solution of water and Amuchina after being used. Among the main activities performed were pendulum surveys, prospecting by rectangles and check sondage. A large area was explored with the pendulum technique. A gauged metric band was positioned centrally to the river bed and acted as a reference point for the diver. While remaining steadily connected to the support boat by means of the "sling" (safety rope, air supply and interphone), the diver moved in circle arches from bank to bank, reducing the lenght of the "sling" by one metre eache time.
The survey by rectangles was instead adopted for the areas the Scan Sonar had shown as anomalous. This tecnique proved to be very successful and enabled tha mission to find masonry, beams, marble blocks, amphorae and pottery fragments. Paolo Arata found also the fragment of an epigraph which read as follows:

(___)DENNIO.A.F(___) (___)CAPT.SENT(___)

Excavations were performed in some of these areas, especially in one where huge dolia had been found, unfortunately broken, along with amphorae and other archaelogical material. On the basis of the sondage results, Paolo Franceso Arata tried to understand whether they were the remains of an ancient shipwreck or of a foodstuffs warehouse which might have slipped into the river or have been flooded by it.

This is, anyway, one of the areas where future research is to be hoped for: besides establishing the size of the area, which boasts wharfs and other structures, a future mission should aim at making a detailed archaelogical map of the area adjacent to the old Roman bridge. It was just into that area that I dived again with Marco Vitelli after only four years: we colud hardly recognise the place, this having been considerably disfigured by illegal excavations and increasing environmental pollution,

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