CAP CORSE, IMMERSION ON THE ANCIENT WINE TRAIL.
Par teddy, dans ENGLISH -# 45 - Fil RSS
Discovered by 34 m depth off the Corsica Cape, the wreck « Western Giraglia 2 » is what one could commonly call a " pinardier". These Roman ships sailed about the 1st century after JC; they transported bulk-wine in big earthenware jars from 2.000 to 3.000 liters called dolia. Although it probably suffered from trawling activity, the wreck offers at least 3 undamaged dolia, very few amphoras (some Dressel 2-4 of Tarraconaise) as well as an important part of its hull in place.
The importance of this wreck falls under the series of the wrecks with dolia discovered in the North-Western Mediterranean but still relatively badly known. Tankers of which the marketing activity, mainly established between the Augustan era and the 1st century after JC, was located between Italy, Spain and Gaulle. From an economic standpoint, the study of these wrecks enables to highlight a novel mode of transport for which the stamps found on the dolia reveal that it was set up by a family of ship-owners located at Minturnes (in southernmost Latium), the Piranis. On about fifteen wrecks with dolia discovered, very little indeed offered part of their hull in good state and very little were ransacked and published in an exhaustive way.
With a hull preserved on at least 8 m of length and 3 m of width including, still in place, the keel, the first strakes of board and a score of floor timbers, the wreck « Western Giraglia 2 » offers a single opportunity to bring concrete answers with the assumptions formulated in connection with the architecture of these specialized ships.
The study of the cargo dispersed on a vast zone bore its fruits. Indeed, one of the goals of this study related to the search for stamps likely to be preserved mainly on the shoulder of the dolia. One of them could be identified; the stamp in planta pedis (in the shape of a footprint) is quite visible on the shoulder of dolium located more at the east of the layer. One can read on the stamp: C (aius) PIRANUS SOTERICUS F (ecit), which means “Caius Piranus Sotericus made me/manufactured by”. The question is now to know if we deal with same Sotericus who signed the dolia ship Grand Ribaud D (cast between 9 before JC and the change of era), of the ship La Garoupe (about the middle of 1st century after JC.) and of that of Ladispoli (around the change of era). That would mean that some of the boats where the dolia of Sotericus had been embarked would have sailed nearly 50 years! This assumption remains to be confirmed.
The end of campaign 2010 was devoted to the raising of a doliolum entirely preserved on the site by 33 m depth. It was about a complex operation, without true precedent in the history of underwater archaeology. The known whole dolia for the majority were carried on the surface thanks to the nets of the trawlers and seldom following a scientific excavation. With the autumn, it will be able to take its place within the rooms of storage of the museum of Bastia while waiting to be exhibited to the public.
The excavation 2010 campaign was carried out under the direction of Franca Cibecchini of the Department of subaqueous and underwater archaeological research (DRASSM) in collaboration with Sabrina Marlier dee association ARKAEOS and of Jean Michel Minvielle (FFESSM) the inventor of the site.
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