Underwater Archaeologists Find Surprising Artifacts from a Roman Naval Battle
Author: A Millisecond of Eternity
The Naval Battle
Archaeologists have explored the site of a naval battle fought between Rome and Carthage 2,200 years ago. They found clues to how the battle may have unfolded, along with several unsolved mysteries.
The discoveries suggest that Carthage reused captured Roman warships in the battle, and that Carthaginian sailors may have made a desperate attempt to escape Roman pursuit by throwing their cargo into the sea.
According to historical records, the naval battle took place on March 10, 241 BCE, near the Aegadian Islands off Sicily in the Mediterranean. A Carthaginian fleet attempting to carry supplies to Carthaginian forces on Sicily was intercepted by the Roman navy, which then destroyed most of its ships. Rome ultimately won a decisive victory, forcing Carthage to sue for peace and accept terms favorable to Rome.
Over the past decade, underwater archaeologists have surveyed the battlefield and found bronze rams, metal helmets, and fragments of ceramic vessels. The final field season of 2018 alone uncovered six bronze rams, several helmets, and pottery fragments.
Carthaginian and Roman Ships in Combat
Carthage appears not to have fought the Romans in an all-out engagement, but to have entered the battle with a fleet composed partly of captured Roman ships. “Of the 19 bronze rams already found in this area, I believe 11 are Roman,” said team member William Murray, professor of Greek history at the University of South Florida. Many helmets found at the site are also of a design archaeologists call the Montefortino type. The helmet was so popular in Rome that the Romans decorated some of their bronze rams with its image.
The many Roman rams and Montefortino-style helmets have left archaeologists with a puzzle. “You would expect the Carthaginians, who lost the battle, to have suffered heavy casualties,” Murray said. “But you might also expect the bronze rams from some warships to have ended up on vessels crewed by the Carthaginians.”
“Carthage probably used ships that it had captured from the Romans in an earlier naval battle,” Murray said. Historical records show that Carthage captured 93 Roman ships in a naval battle several years before the Battle of the Aegadian Islands. Why so many Montefortino helmets are present remains a mystery. “One explanation is that the Carthaginians hired mercenaries from Gaul and Iberia to crew many of the ships in their fleet, and soldiers from those regions sometimes used Montefortino helmets,” Murray said.
Did the Sailors Throw Their Cargo into the Sea?
The archaeologists also found amphorae—oval, two-handled ceramic jars often used to store liquids—scattered around the remains of Roman ships. Murray said this was strange because jars that fell from storage aboard a ship should have been clustered together. “It is as if they were thrown into the sea, which separated them before they sank to the seabed,” Murray said. “One possible explanation is that the Carthaginian sailors realized during the battle that their mission would fail and jettisoned their cargo—the supplies intended for Carthaginian forces in Sicily—to make their ships lighter, faster, and better able to escape the Roman fleet.”
Wasted Food?
“Besides being widely scattered, none of the amphorae has the tar-like lining that would keep liquids from evaporating during storage,” Murray said. This means that most of the liquid would have evaporated by the time the jars reached Sicily. Even if the Carthaginian fleet had reached Sicily, therefore, part of its cargo would have gone to waste. Although amphorae could also store grain, he said, ancient accounts of unloading cargo from ships suggest that grain was more commonly carried in sacks.
“Perhaps the Carthaginians were in such a hurry to supply their army that they had no time to choose suitable containers,” Murray said. “Another possibility is that they did not have many sacks available, so they decided to carry dry goods to Sicily in amphorae.” Scientists are conducting chemical tests in an effort to determine what the containers held.
Murray and other members of the research team presented their findings in a paper at the joint annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies, held in San Diego from January 3 to 6.
The project surveying and excavating the underwater site is jointly conducted by Sicily’s Soprintendenza del Mare and the RPM Nautical Foundation, with scientists from several other institutions also participating. They plan to conduct another field expedition in 2019.
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