The landscape of the naval battle at the Egadi Islands (241 B.C.)

Tusa, Sebastiano; Royal, Jeffrey G.

doi:10.1017/s1047759400001124

Cited by 18 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Mercenary service would offer opportunities for friendly intercourse between Italian and Celtic soldiers of fortune, including sale or exchange of weapons. The large number of Montefortino helmets recovered on the sea floor off the Egadi Islands (as of this writing, all but one of the helmets recovered), sunk to the bottom after a dramatic Roman victory, suggests that some were worn by soldiers fighting on the Carthaginian side, probably Celtic and south Italian mercenaries (Tusa and Royal, 2012: 26–8). The Montefortino helmet was particularly popular in southern Italy from an early date, so much so that it was traditionally known to modern scholars as the ‘Canosa’ type.…”

Section: Motives For Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Panoply and Identity During the Roman Republic

Taylor¹

2020

Pap. Br. Sch. Rome

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This paper examines how the Romans in the early Republic adopted Celtic panoply, in the process abandoning Greek-style hoplite equipment. The first part details the Celtic aspects of the major pieces of Rome's new military equipment: La Tène sword, oval shield (scutum), javelin (pilum), mail armour and Montefortino helmet. The next section seeks possible military and cultural explanations for this transition, suggesting among other factors that the new kit may have been driven by increased recruitment from beyond the narrow hoplite class. The panoply eventually coalesced into a symbol of specifically Roman identity, especially as the Romans deployed distinctively equipped armies into Magna Graecia and the Hellenistic East.

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Section: Motives For Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Panoply and Identity During the Roman Republic

Taylor¹

2020

Pap. Br. Sch. Rome

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“…The artifact examined in this study, referred to as ram 13, is a trident rostrum characterized of three sharp and blunt cuts (Figure 2A). This type of ram was common among the main Mediterranean warships beginning in the 4th century BC (Tusa and Royal, 2012). Ram 13 is of great importance because since it shows a Punic inscription on the upper sheath.…”

Section: The Ram Egadi 13mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ours is the first study on the benthic assemblage associated with a bronze artifact and offers a novel contribution to the assessment of biodiversity on the seabed surrounding the archeological shipwreck. The ram 13 sank with a punic ship in 241 BC during the Aegates battle between the Romans and the Carthaginians (Tusa and Royal, 2012). We analyze the calcified zoobenthic organisms, including gastropod and bivalve mollusks, serpulid polychaetes, and bryozoans, accumulated in the sediment inside the naval ram during the prolonged period lying on the seabed in order to: (i) document species composition of the benthic assemblage collected in the ram; (ii) compare the observed assemblage with those of other Mediterranean communities and recognize biocenotic affinities; (iii) hypothesize possible colonization patterns of the ram by the benthic biota; and…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Report on the Benthic Invertebrate Community Associated With a Bronze Naval Ram From the First Punic War: A Proxy of Marine Biodiversity

et al. 2021

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Historical traces of organisms on the seafloor, such as shells and tubes, constitute the ecological memory of ancient benthic assemblages and serve as an important resource for understanding the assembly of modern communities. Archeological shipwrecks are particularly interesting submerged substrata for both their archeological and biological implications. For the first time, we studied the species composition and life-history traits of dominant organisms in the benthic assemblage on a bronze Carthaginian naval ram, which sank more than two thousand years ago in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea. By comparing the species composition of the ram assemblage with those of the surrounding habitats, we inferred possible colonization patterns for the ram and discussed the informative role of the shipwreck as a proxy of marine biodiversity. The ram assemblage was rich in species, including both sessile (bryozoans, serpulid polychaetes, and few bivalves) and motile (gastropods) species. Sexual reproduction with free-spawning fertilization and long-duration larvae characterized most species. The long submersion time of the ram, together with the reproductive strategies, growth forms, and motility of the dominant species were key factors shaping the community of the ram. The ram itself offers an archeological artifact of inestimable value, but our analysis revealed it to be an effective collector of fauna from the surrounding seabed. The ram community hosted species from a range of nearby natural habitats (mostly coralligenous, detritic bottoms, and zoosteracean meadows) and thus served as a proxy for marine biodiversity on the surrounding seabed. We conclude that the presence of many species on the ram that commonly occur in adjacent habitats of great environmental value was informative and highlight the important marine biodiversity in the area of the Aegadian archipelago.

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“…Despite this fact, we do have some evidence that is germane to our subject, namely, the bow configurations suggested by authentic warship rams from later periods. The general construction concept for warships built during the age of ramming warfare, notably the Athlit (Steffy, ), Acqualadroni (Tisseyre, ), Egadi (Tusa and Royal, ; Royal and Tusa forthcoming), Bremerhaven and Piraeus warships, was to extend the major lower hull timbers forward of the stem so they could receive and transfer the forces incurred when ramming another vessel. This was accomplished through integrating an assembly of timbers: the ramming assembly.…”

Section: Bow Configurations and Designsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cutwaters Before Rams: an experimental investigation into the origins and development of the waterline ram

Murray

Ferreiro

Vardalas

et al. 2016

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

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) investigated the reasons for an elongated projection at the bow of Mediterranean galleys. Using a 1:20 base model adapted from the Trireme Trust's Olympias fitted with: 1) an elongated projection; and 2) a control bow similar to excavated merchant ships, tow-tank tests were carried out at various speeds. Hydrodynamic resistance and power were calculated for each bow type. Above speeds corresponding to 6 knots, the cutwater bow significantly attenuated the model's bow waves when compared to the control bow. These results were then compared to those of the ship with a ram-type bow from experiments conducted in 1985 at the National Technical University of Athens, which showed similar wave-attenuating characteristics. © 2016 The AuthorsKey words: cutwater, ram, bow, galley, trireme, hydrodynamics.I n 2014, Michael Geselowitz and John Vardalas (of the IEEE History Center) piloted a new kind of humanities course at the Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT). The course 'Engineering in History', a survey of engineering from prehistory to the 17th century of our era, aimed to marry hands-on laboratory classes with traditional history lectures. Vardalas encouraged his students to explore the design and use of technology in problem-solving scenarios in different historical contexts. Vardalas, who has a special interest in maritime history, wanted to design a term project around the theme of ancient vessels, a choice that was influenced by the world-class facilities in marine engineering and naval architecture at Stevens. He accordingly contacted Larrie Ferreiro, who involved William Murray, who in turn asked Jeffrey Royal to collaborate. A few conference calls and a quick exchange of emails convinced us all that the class might usefully study a long-standing question in Mediterranean ship design: the introduction of the ram/cutwater bow on long, narrow Mediterranean galleys.Students in the class were broken into two teams: one testing a vessel with an ancient cutwater design, the other testing the same hull but with a more conventional-looking bow. Hull lines were based on Olympias, the famous trireme designed by J. F. Coates and J. S. Morrison, built by the Hellenic Navy, and launched in 1987 (Morrison and Coates, 1989;Morrison et al., 2000). We freely acknowledge the methodological problems involved with using these lines, which Coates developed specifically to merge with a ram prow. Nevertheless, considering the constraints placed on us by the timing of the course exercise, we felt they provided a good starting point for our test. These lines had the additional advantage of being made immediately available to us (both drawings and offsets) by the Trireme Trust, whom we wish to W. M. MURRAY ET AL.: AN EXPERIMENT IN ANCIENT CUTWATER HYDROGRAPHICSthank. Without this information, it would have been impossible to produce our 3D hull models in time for the scheduled tests. Based on ancient ship iconography and knowledge of ancient ship construction, the authors also produced a cutwater design that was then given to the Dav...

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The landscape of the naval battle at the Egadi Islands (241 B.C.)

Cited by 18 publications

References 10 publications

Panoply and Identity During the Roman Republic

Panoply and Identity During the Roman Republic

First Report on the Benthic Invertebrate Community Associated With a Bronze Naval Ram From the First Punic War: A Proxy of Marine Biodiversity

Cutwaters Before Rams: an experimental investigation into the origins and development of the waterline ram

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