The Roman Ship 'punta Scifo d' and its Marble Cargo (Crotone, Italy)

Abstract

Summary In the first three centuries AD, large‐scale building projects, both in Rome and in the western colonies, stimulated the demand for marble from the eastern quarries. The Punta Scifo D shipwreck – discovered in 1986 in the Bay of Scifo, south of Crotone, Italy, and investigated in 2011 and 2013 by a team from the Università Ca' Foscari of Venice – is an important source for the reconstruction of this kind of trade in the Roman Empire. Studies of the cargo, dated to the third century AD, were the basis for the virtual reconstruction of a barge about 40 m long carrying a cargo of almost 340 tons. Petrographic and isotopic analyses demonstrated that it carried three different types of marble: mainly Proconnesian, some Pentelic, and one slab of Dokimean marble. The ship probably departed from the island of Marmara, and stopped at Ephesos, and perhaps also at Piraeus.

Archaeological and archaeometric investigation of the Roman marble cargos of Porto Cervo (Arzachena, Sassari, Italy) and Secche della Meloria (Livorno, Italy)

“…The investigations of the shipwrecked Roman marble cargos at Porto Cervo and Secche della Meloria are part of ‘Marble Trade Routes in Antiquity‘ project coordinated by Carlo Beltrame, in collaboration with LAMA (Laboratory for Analyzing Materials of Ancient origin) of the IUAV University of Venice. The main aims of the project are to reconstruct the dynamics of the marble trade through a systematic archaeometric analysis of the cargos, and to study the characteristics of the ships that transported marble (Beltrame & Cipolato, 2019; Beltrame et al, 2016, 2019, 2020; Parizzi & Beltrame, 2020).…”

A Usable and People-Friendly Cultural Heritage: MAGNA Project, on the Route from Greece to Magna Graecia

“…The archaeological deposit "Punta Scifo D" comprises over 50 marble blocks(Figure 4d) belonging to the cargo ship and a series of pottery and amphorae dated back to the third century A.D. These latter ones come from the Aegean-Microasiatic and Pontine areas[16].…”