Rome (CNN) — Italian spear fisherman and diver Giacomo De Mola couldn’t believe his eyes when what he thought was an underwater rock turned out to be the wreck of a 2,000-year-old Roman transport vessel off the coast of Sicily.
De Mola and fellow spear fisherman and diver Igor Bisulli were spearfishing off the coast of Mazara del Vallo last week when they saw what they thought was just a rock between 40 and 50 meters (131-164 feet) below the surface.
“But something compels me to check. One last breath. And I descend. The visibility isn’t the best. I see a large dark mass and think: ‘The usual big rock,’” De Mola wrote in an Instagram post.
“I get closer. And my heart stops. It wasn’t a rock. Beneath me was an immense expanse of amphorae. Hundreds of amphorae that had lain on the seabed for over 2,000 years. A Roman ship asleep in the silence of the Mediterranean. When I resurface, I say to Igor: ‘You can’t imagine what’s down there.’”
The fishermen then notified the Sicilian Regional Superintendency of the Sea, which alerted the Carabinieri military police cultural protection unit that deals with antiquities.
The Carabinieri verified that the sunken vessel dated back to between the second and first centuries BC. It was carrying hundreds of clay amphora jugs used to transport wine and olive oil, the Culture Ministry said in a post on its website.
“A Roman-era shipwreck, presumably dating between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, has been discovered approximately three miles off the coast of Mazara del Vallo, at a depth of 46 meters,” Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli wrote.
“The seabed contains hundreds of amphorae, mostly of the Dressel 1A type, two lead anchor stocks, and another structure made of the same material.”
Giuli called it “one of the most important underwater archaeological discoveries of recent years.” Video released by the ministry shows divers measuring and documenting the find.
The amphorae were piled nearly two meters (seven feet) high, in a heap spanning more than 20 meters (66 feet) in length and six meters (20 feet) in width.
Some of the jugs were the type used in North Africa and one is an older, Neo-Punic amphora, according to the Culture Ministry.
“The sea continues to bring us precious fragments of our history, and the Mazara del Vallo shipwreck tells us about the people, the routes, and the exchanges that made the Mediterranean a crossroads of civilizations. Research will continue to unravel its history and deliver it to the community,” Giuli continued.
The site will now be subject to further documentation and research by the Superintendency of the Sea, aimed at achieving a more complete understanding of the archaeological context and adopting appropriate protection measures, according to a statement by the Carabinieri, who will secure the area.
“The operation to locate the wreck confirms the importance of collaboration between the specialized units of the Carabinieri and the organizations responsible for the protection of cultural heritage, aimed at safeguarding the historical testimonies preserved on the seabed and their return to the community,” they said.
The waters around Sicily, which was colonized by the ancient Greeks and later conquered by the Romans around 240 BC, constituted one of the ancient world’s most important trade routes.
The discovery will shed new light into just who was traversing these waters during that era, the culture ministry says.
“There is no plan now to raise the entire shipwreck but some of the artifacts may be brought up for study — it may turn into a dive site, it may eventually be raised, there is more to study in terms of the fragility of the wreck site, etc. and they need to determine if there had been previous pillages,” a ministry spokesperson told CNN. “So it will stay put for now, protected, studied and valued.”
The divers will receive special state recognition for their discovery, the ministry said.
“It is hard to describe the feeling of being among the first humans in nearly 20 centuries to see that place again,” De Mola wrote on social media. “This is, without a doubt, the most incredible discovery of my life.”
Lucy Blue, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Southampton, England, who was not involved in the discovery, told CNN that the “remarkably intact early Roman shipwreck adds yet more knowledge to our understanding of trade and exchange prior to the Roman Empire.”
Blue added that the substantial number of amphorae may be “preserving an even more intact wooden hull” of the ship itself, which would advance our understanding of Roman technology.
The-CNN-Wire
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