Shipwrecked Wine Jars Discovered Near Sicily

The dense assemblage of amphorae found on the seabed near Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. Courtesy the Italian Ministry of Culture.

“You can’t imagine what’s down here.” That was the reaction of diver Giacomo De Mola when he realized that what he took for a large rock on the Mediterranean seafloor was actually a pile of ancient pottery vessels. De Mola described approaching the site off Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, in poor visibility and suddenly seeing “a vast expanse of amphorae” below. The artifacts are part of a Roman shipwreck located roughly 3 miles offshore, at a depth of about 150 feet. It contains hundreds of vessels (most identified by scholars as Dressel 1A amphorae), two lead anchor stocks (an anchor’s top horizontal crossbar), and another unidentified lead structure. Alessandro Giuli from the Italian Ministry of Culture suggests, “This is one of the most important underwater archaeological discoveries of recent years.”

Underwater archaeologists exploring the site near Mazara del Vallo, Sicily. Courtesy the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Amphorae (singular amphora) were the storage containers of the ancient Mediterranean world, known to hold commodities such as wine, olive oil, and grain. They were large, two-handled ceramic vessels with relatively narrow necks. Their bases vary depending on the type of good they were designed to carry. It is no wonder that so many Dressel 1A amphorae (named after the scholar who first classified them) were found in a shipwreck: They were containers designed for transport.

Imagine transporting fragile pottery on the windy seas. Dressel 1A amphorae were designed to do just that: They are tall and narrow, with a tapered top and bottom, and a bloated center to maximize capacity. The pointed bottom was not designed to stand upright on a flat surface like a modern bottle. As wine containers go, a pointed bottom does not seem the natural choice. However, for transport, a pointed or knob-like base was ideal for placement in a rack, along with other tightly packed vessels and dunnage, to form one large, secured mass of cargo. Dressel 1A amphorae are fascinating because they are at once pottery, packaging, cargo, and evidence of ancient economy, having been found well outside Italy in places such as Gaul, Spain, and North Africa.

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In fact, the Dressel 1A typology is likely why the Italian Ministry of Culture gave a provisional second–first-century BCE dating for the shipwreck. They were the typical wine amphorae of the Roman Republic, generally associated with Italy in the late second and early first centuries BCE.

Lead anchor stock found among the amphorae at the underwater site near Mazara del Vallo. Courtesy the Italian Ministry of Culture.

In addition, the two lead anchor stocks serve as useful evidence that the underwater site contains a shipwreck rather than an underwater dump or some other feature. The amphorae seem to have gone down with the ship.

The hundreds of amphorae found near Mazara del Vallo seem to represent a major commercial shipment of Italian wine. If other amphora types are found, or if any of the amphorae turn out to be stamped, inscribed or painted, this will provide more context, as would cooking vessels, tools, and any personal objects, which may provide information about the crew and voyage. Further investigation of this exciting site is underway. As Giuli said, “The sea continues to bring back precious fragments of our history, and the Mazara del Vallo wreck speaks to us of the people, the routes, and the exchanges that made the Mediterranean a crossroads of civilizations.”

Lauren K. McCormick is an assistant editor at Biblical Archaeology Review and a specialist in ancient Near Eastern religions, visual culture, and the Bible. She holds degrees in religion from Syracuse University, Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on religion and the public conversation at Princeton University.