Antiquities Exhibits

(condensed from the Master's thesis of Troy Joseph Nowak, Texas A&M University, 2006, "Archaeological Evidence for Ship Eyes: An Analysis of Their Form and Function  ( https://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/Nowak-MA2006.pdf#:~:text=bows%20of%20ancient%20Greek%20ships%20between%20the%205th,guided%20the%20ship%20and%20helped%20to%20avoid%20hazards .) Between the Bronze Age and the 3rd century BCE, all types of watercraft used in the Mediterranean from small boats to large galleys were commonly adorned with eyes on their bows.  In Greece, the earliest clear depiction of a ship with eyes is a Late Helladic clay ship model decorated with circular eyes discovered at Phylakopi, Melos. However, ship representations with eyes do not reappear in the archaeological record again until the Geometric Period.  Excavations in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens have yielded an impressive collection of Late Geometric I [c. 760 to 735 BCE] ceramics decorated with ships. Eyes adorn the bows of ...

I've been catching up on my reading and thoroughly enjoyed the article "Roman Fleet Personnel" by Duncan Campbell in Volume XIV, Issue 2 of Ancient Warfare Magazine. So today's featured "Antiquities Alive" artwork are the frescos of Roman galleys found in the porticus of the Temple of Isis at Pompeii. Campbell points out that the Roman navy was crewed by fleet soldiers/marines termed "milites classiarii", sailors known as "nautae" and oarsmen called remiges.  However, on funerary monuments these men referred to themselves as just milites.  They were commanded by a centurion just as they would have been if a regular member of the legions.  The main distinction found on recovered gravestones is the mention of the name of the ship on which they served, although some men just recognized the name of their centurionate, such as "member of the centuria of Antonius Priscus." Two uniquely naval officers were the trierarchus, captain of t...

Restored Roman barge now on display in the Museum of Ancient Arles in Arles, France.  Arles was once a major commercial hub of the Roman Empire, where ships that plied the waters of the Rhône and the Mediterranean Sea unloaded their wares at the city’s docks. Due to storms and floods, some of those goods found themselves at the bottom of the murky Rhône, presumably lost forever. But with dredging, some of these ancient wonders were rediscovered, buried among the rotting tires, broken tiles and other detritus from the last twenty centuries.  One such find was a more than 100-foot long Roman barge discovered in 2004. But raising the barge and restoring it was expensive.  Fortunately, the European Union came to the rescue in 2013 with a grant to restore the ship and build a new wing of the Arles museum to house it.  You can now walk around the barge and see where the cargo was held and where the crew  of 2000 years ago cooked and slept. https://www.francetoday...

Artifacts recovered from a Roman imperial era transport vessel at The Ancient Delta Museum of Comacchio, Italy.  Artifacts recovered from a Roman imperial era transport vessel at The Ancient Delta Museum of Comacchio, Italy.The Ancient Delta Museum of Comacchio, Italy is an archaeological museum housing over 2,000 finds from the Po Delta and the necropolis of an ancient Etruscan port near the modern village of Spina containing 4,000 tombs, as well as the remains of a Roman imperial era commercial transport vessel previously displayed in the Museum of the Roman Ship in Bellini Palace. The entire cargo of the vessel as well as equipment and clothing of the crew are displayed.  The museum also has a medieval gallery featuring objects related to the sale of the salt and the manufacture of objects in glass and metal. Image: Lead temple votive offerings were part of the cargo of the imperial era Roman vessel dubbed the Stella Maris.  Image courtesy of Trip Advisor visit...