THE ILOVIC ROMAN SHIPWRECK

NZUHG members, Dave Moran and Keith Gordon, traveled to Croatia

They participated in an archaeological project on a second-century A.D wreck of a Roman galley, being conducted by the University of Zadar. An invitation from NZUHG associate member Prof Bridget Buxton and Prof Irena Radic Rossi of the Zadar University initiated hurried logistical planning by Dave and Keith to join the project.
For them it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Bridget, a Kiwi familiar to many of our members, is based in Rhode Island, USA, and is Professor of Ancient Mediterranean History with the University of Rhode Island. She has been involved with a number of shipwreck archaeological surveys in the Mediterranean region and had recently completed another term with the Oceangate submersible dives on the Titanic. Together with Irena, the two academics had published a paper: “The Roman shipwreck of Sv.Petar Ilovic: old research new possibilities.” (We can send a copy to Members if interested).

In their paper, Irena and Bridget have reported - although the shipwreck was discovered by sponge divers in 1965 has been heavily looted and later archaeological excavations had taken much of what remained on or near the seabed surface, they consider a systematic excavation could help to resolve many questions about the final voyage of the vessel. There was also a question of a possible relationship to the famous Croatian Apoxyomenos statue found on the seabed nearby.

Keith reports the following: As we departed NZ on a thirty plus hour journey to the Croatian island of ILovic, the month-long project to excavate the wreck site had been underway for a couple of weeks. We took a side scan sonar system and a small Remote Operated Vehicle with us – not easy when trying to stay within economy airfare baggage allowances.

The team working on the site under Irena’s direction, besides the Croatian members, included a number of nationalities. Also, a Japanese film team arrived to film sequences for a documentary they were filming.Working from the dive support boat Oliga, a survey grid had been set up over the wreck site in 26-metres of very clear water. A system of diver-operated dredges supplied by portable water pumps on the boat, were being used to excavate the overburden to expose remaining artefacts and the wood remains of the bottom hull structure.

Amphora, the ubiquitous clay vessels used by the ancient Romans and Greeks to transport cargo such as wine and grain, were carefully extracted from the seabed where they had been hidden for some 2,000 years and brought to the surface. Buried in the sands they had escaped the looters and earlier archaeological activities. Following cleaning and recording with the grid reference from where they were recovered, they were carefully protected for transport and later conservation and study at the Zadar University.

For us two Kiwi’s it was quite an experience to handle the remains of amphora as they were raised from the wreck site where they had lain for over two-thousand- years – a lot of history had occurred in that time; certainly, a different experience from exploring NZ shipwrecks!

Artefacts arriving on the dive-boat were tagged recording the grid reference from where they had been recovered. On arrival back at our base accommodation facility they were cleaned and identified with a recording system, photographed and prepared for transport to the university. Contents including seabed sediment from inside the amphora were bagged for later analysis.

Dave and I were engaged for a number of days with carrying out a survey of the seabed area.

Extending some 2.5km from the wreck site to the location where the famed Greek bronze Apoxyomenos – the athlete of Croatia statue, had been discovered in 1999 at a 42m depth by a tourist scuba diver. There is a theory that the statue may have been cargo on the Roman galley and had been discarded when the ship got into trouble when caught in a storm.
A Roman lead anchor and an amphora had also been found close to the statue. Possibly there were other artefacts, including statues, lying on the seabed between the two sites. We had visited the museum in nearby Mali Losinj where the conserved reconstructed statue is on display under strict viewing conditions in a climate-controlled room. It is certainly an imposing example of early pre-BC Greek bronze art and to find similar would certainly be a discovery of international note.

Using a RIB crewed by two of our Croatian associates, Vedran and Mislav, we carried out a “mowing the lawn” survey using a hand-held GPS and the Starfish side scan sonar unit we had brought with us from NZ. Targets of interest were recorded and following the sonar survey, were investigated with our small ROV system which we had also brought with us. We had had a problem with the ROV battery exceeding the capacity permitted for carriage on airlines, but with some hasty online research we had located an agent in Zagreb and the University had purchased a battery in time for our arrival.
Targets in depths down to 45-metre’s were recorded on the ROV video, some have been noted for later investigation. On one occasion we observed a Police patrol launch bearing down on us and were a bit concerned when it pulled along-side and they demanded we tie up together. We could see our Croatian partner, Mislav, was initially a bit nervous but following a period of questioning from the police, none of which Dave or I could understand, he relaxed and with smiles all-round the police departed to continue their patrol.

Although the archaeological project we were involved with had been Government approved, the message had not got through to the maritime police patrol. With the many historical ancient wrecks in Croatian Adriatic waters and the past looting of many of these wrecks, there is a constant lookout for such illegal activities.

A large quantity of broken amphora shards had been cleared and stacked on the side of the wreck site.

As the divers using the dredges had cleared overburden as they burrowed down to the timbers of the lower hull. An octopus had taken up residence amongst the discarded pottery sections and was collecting material from the wreck site to add to his home. Bridget was interested to what the octopus had collected and would carry out inspections of the debris surrounding the home – this would lead to strong objections from the octopus often leading to a bit of a tussle between the two. An example ofthe type of artefact the octopus may have collected was when Bridget, diving with Dave and using her metal detector, uncovered a coin. Only the second to have been discovered on the site, the other from a previous field session.

Like the previous coin this coin also had the image of Emperor Trajan (103 –111 A.D.) giving thought that the ship was possibly returning with spoils from Trajan’s campaigns in the East.

Amongst the material raised from the wreck site were large clumps of weighty concretions.

These would be taken back to the University for later investigation. What secrets did they hold? Perhaps evidence of a connection with the Apoxyomenos statue. Working with the professional archaeology team and observing the methods used to uncover and recover artefacts from the 2,000- year-old shipwreck was an experience for both of us; we learnt a lot on survey methods and how such a project is conducted.
The month-long project came to a close and the divers dismantled and recovered the survey grid and dredge equipment. The piles of broken pottery and other debris that had been stacked around the perimeter of the work-site was moved back to cover the exposed wreck timbers. Hopefully to prevent unwanted future intervention by unauthorized divers. The local ILovic villagers had also been informed of the historical wreck situation and asked to report any unwanted illegal activity on the site.

With the team and all the equipment aboard the Oliga we set sail down the Adriatic coast to Zadar, where the recovered artefacts were unloaded for transport to the University. As we passed over the wreck site Dave assisted Irena with jettisoning bags of unwanted recovered material and pottery shards back onto the wreck. It was a first-time experience for Dave returning shipwreck material back onto the wreck – quite amusing to see his expression as he threw the unwanted 2,000-year-old shipwreck material back into the ocean!

We tied up close to Verdran’s dive centre near Zadar from where he operates dives to local dive locations; he even has an ancient Roman wreck lying in the pristine waters close by. When Verdran discovered the wreck, it was previously unknown. A number of these historical archaeological wrecks now exposed to divers in Croatian waters have had steel cage structures constructed over the site to prevent unwanted disturbance from divers.However, Vedran successfully prevented a cage being placed over his newly discovered wreck as a number cases of cages with no appointed responsibility for maintenance up-keep, are now in a bad state and disintegrating.

With our cargo of recovered artefacts unloaded and destined to be delivered to the University, Dave and I accepted the invitation from one of the dive team Marco Lete to travel down the coast with him to Split and stay for a couple of days in his apartment. There we visited historical sites and the home of Marco’s parents where we met his father Prof. Neven Lete who is internationally recognized for his work with restoring Broken pottery from the ancient shipwrecks. We admired a collection of repaired artefacts now taking pride of place in their home lounge. Also, of interest was the large collection of Roman coins that had been collected over the past years, which Marco could describe in some detail.
Croatia certainly has an abundance of ancient historical shipwrecks, many still to be discovered and many others still to undergo archaeological survey. Then as an added attraction for divers are the many World War 2 aircraft lying in the nearby depths of the Adriatic.