So I was interested to read a report by Associated Press in the Boston Globe that a joint US-Albanian archaeological team had found the well-preserved wreck of a 1st century B.C. Roman cargo ship off the coast of Vlore, complete with 300 wine jars from Illyricum.
Mission leader George Robb said the 30-metre ship could have been part of a flourishing trade in local wine from southern Albanian vineyards, adding: “Ancient Illyria was a major source of supply for the western Mediterranean, including present day France and Spain.”
The paper reported that most of the jars, known by their Greek name of amphoras and used to transport wine and oil, were unbroken despite the shipwreck. However, the stoppers used to seal them had gone, allowing their contents to leak out into the salt water.
A statement from the Key West, Florida-based RPM Nautical Foundation said the find was made 50 metres deep near the port city of Vlore, 90 miles south west of the capital, Tirana, early this month.
The foundation, in cooperation with Albanian archaeologists, has been surveying a swathe of Albania's previously unexplored coastal waters for the past five years. So far, experts have located 20 shipwrecks - including several relatively modern ones.
"Taking into consideration the date and also the depth - which is well suited for excavation - I would include it among the top 10 most scientifically interesting wrecks found in the Mediterranean," said Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi, who participated in the project.
The site, whose precise location is being kept secret, will be left unexplored until the Albanian archaeological service is in a position to do so, concluded the paper.
For more details about Illyricum and Vlore, where Berti Dosti went on his first summer Christian camp in June 1993, see my book, God’s Secret Listener, available from John@jbutterworth.plus.com
No comments:
Post a Comment