La navis marmorum di età romana ‘Punta Scifo D’ (Crotone). Risultati preliminari della prima campagna di indagini subacquee

Lorenzo Lazzarini, Salvatore Medaglia, Carlo Beltrame,

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Abstract

The shipwreck, called Punta scifo D, was discovered in 1986 in the bay of scifo, south of Crotone, in italy. in 1987, the local soprintendenza contracted the aquarius company to make a preliminary excavation and a plan of the site which is composed by 54 large blocks and slabs of white marble. a brief investigation organized, in 2011, by the università Ca’ Foscari of venice and directed by C. Beltrame and s. medaglia, has allowed to make a precise photomosaic of the cargo, to document and sample the blocks and to study the pottery of the galley recovered in 1987. Lazzarini’s analysis has demonstrated that the ship carried Proconnesian and Docimean marble. a preliminary study of the pottery allows to propose a dating in the iii cent. a.D. initial studies, made by the naval engineer s. Parizzi, have concluded that the ship was about 40 m long and 14 m wide. The only piece of wood recovered in 1987 has been re-interpreted as a fragment of wale which shows a double order of mortise and tenon joints. in summary, the preliminary study describes a cargo of almost 340 tonnes which would be the biggest of the mediterranean.

Keywords

• archeologia subacquea
• underwater archaeology
• Carlo Beltrame