The Marzamemi Shipwreck Excavation: A Late Antique Church under the Sea

JUSTIN LEIDWANGER AND ELIZABETH S. GREENE T THE he 6th century AD was marked by the ambitious rule of Justinian (527-565) and his brief renaissance of the Roman Empire. More than two centuries of division and setbacks in the west had left half of the once Mediterraneanwide empire in the hands of Vandals, Ostrogoths, and others. Dedicated eforts by Justinian and his stalwart generals brought North Africa, Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and the Iberian peninsula back into the fold. Driven by the vision of an empire uniied not only politically, but economically and religiously, Justinian launched proliic building projects that sought to restore the symbolic features of Roman life: civic spaces, fortiications, and religious structures. Military triumphs are often short lived, and Justinian’s empire soon lost much of its reconquered territory, but the mark of this lourish survives today particularly in the many 6th-century churches constructed across the Mediterranean, including the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, and the magniicent centerpiece of his program, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. hese buildings feature marble from the imperial quarries at Proconnesus in the Sea of Marmara paired with a lavish assortment of decorative stones drawn from all corners of the Mediterranean world, a symbol of the breadth and power of the imperial order. MARZAMEMI SHIPWRECK EXCAVATION A Late Antique Church Under The Sea NEW INVESTIGATIONS AT MARZAMEMI With such questions in mind, a collaborative team from Stanford University and the Sicilian Soprintendenza del Mare began Ravenna DISCOVERY AND EARLY EXPLORATION In 1959 a local isherman spotted marble columns and carved stone blocks about a kilometer of the coast of Marzamemi in southeast Sicily; explorations throughout the early 1960s by Gerhard Kapitän identiied these as elements of religious architecture and connected the submerged remains to a lost ship from the era of Justinian. Kapitän spearheaded the recovery D B L ACK SE A R IA TI EA TYRRHENIAN SEA Constantinople Larissa AE GE AN NI A O I SE AN SE MEDI T ERR ANEAN SEA 8 INA QUARTERLY 43.3/4 FALL/WINTER 2016 Sabratha A Syracuse Marzamemi Carthage Proconnesus Thasos S Rome C Opposite page: INA Director and veteran underwater archaeologist S. Matthews inspects a column fragment wedged under a boulder. investigating the “church wreck” at Marzamemi in 2013. hrough survey, excavation, and analysis, the research program has begun to answer questions about the ship’s place in the complex interconnections—political, economic, and religious—of the late antique Mediterranean. At a depth of only about 8 m (25 ft), the site is marked by its collection of marble elements in a sandy depression on a seabed of reef and rock. he shallow depth means that winter storms bufet the site, wedging small artifacts deep beneath boulders, and on occasion moving even larger elements. Multi-ton rocks and reef have collapsed onto the site and now sit atop columns. Such challenging topography in a dynamic marine environment has made careful mapping through traditional and innovative systems a priority in order both to contextualize Kapitän’s earlier work and to keep track of objects that appear and disappear in shifting sands between seasons. Excavation relies on an ever-growing international team. In 2016 the core group was comprised of more than 30 student and staf archaeologists, conservators, and specialists from six countries. he shallow depth facilitates the use of water dredges to remove sand. Because each dredge can be operated with a single water pump, surface support for dive operations is relatively minor: a single extra boat ferries pumps, fuel, A PHOTO: L. MCPHIE BY JUSTIN LEIDWANGER AND ELIZABETH S. GREENE of hundreds of artifacts, surveyed the site remains, and published a moving narrative of the “church wreck,” with its cargo of prefabricated components destined for assembly somewhere in North Africa. here is obvious appeal to such a system of standardized imperial construction in the late Roman world, particularly in association with Justinian’s interest in religious architecture, but this narrative may tell only part of the story. To what degree does the assemblage stand as a symbol of imperial agency in rebuilding the Late Roman west, and how much inluence did the emperor hold over economic connections between the quarrying and transport of marble on the one hand, and the inancing, design, and construction of churches on the other? Was the emperor the primary instigator of luxury shipments, or did massive quantities of marble travel as standard commercial goods alongside the wine, oil, and grain that fed the empire? Who was charged with their transport, and what sort of ship was entrusted with this massive and expensive stone cargo weighing more than 100 tons? 0 200 400 600 WWW.NAUTICALARCH.ORG 9 Apollonia 800 Km and additional scuba tanks out to the site each morning. he warm water and depth make long dives possible. he moving and lifting of heavy marble elements presents its own set of challenges, but support from professional divers in Marzamemi, the Guardia di Finanza’s diving team and naval operations in Pozzallo and Siracusa has allowed us to move these boulders of the site safely and to raise the architectural inds to the surface. Once recovered, artifacts are brought to the Palmento di Rudinì, a restored 19th-century winery situated on a bluf overlooking Marzamemi. While the front of the facility has been transformed into a local museum, conservation takes place in the rear section where plastered wine vats now store ancient objects and outdoor tanks hold marble columns undergoing desalination. Oice and conservation space allows artifacts to be processed, recorded, photographed, catalogued, and studied. he winery ofers numerous options for museum displays and audience engagement. Cavernous underground tunnels that once stored wine raise an intriguing prospect for future display where visitors might “immerse” themselves in archaeology as if descending into the sea. A JUMBLE OF BUILDING BLOCKS By sheer mass, the most abundant objects recovered from the site are stone. Kapitän recorded 28 columns, capitals, and bases prefabricated in Proconnesian marble, which he believed represented a colonnade lining the central space of a church. His discovery of panels and other distinctive elements in a striking mottled green stone—the famous verde antico quarried in northern Greece—pointed to the inclusion in the cargo of an ambo, the elevated platform used by the clergy for liturgical reading and speeches. Panels of light grey marble decorated with Latin crosses, ivy, and christograms would have been assembled into a chancel screen that separated the clergy and congregation. Together with a likely altar and ciborium (altar canopy), these pieces relect the focal points of the early Christian liturgy. Yet recent excavation has revealed small but signiicant diversity in the architectural inds, including a larger number of capitals and more stone sources than Kapitän had realized, suggesting that the narrative behind this “church set” might not be quite so straightforward. he new elements raise questions about not only the size and scale of the religious PHOTOS: THIS PAGE, FROM TOP: A. ORON; S. MATTHEWS; OPPOSITE PAGE: J. LEIDWANGER A LATE ANTIQUE CHURCH UNDER THE SEA: THE MARZAMEMI SHIPWRECK EXCAVATION Small inds discovered in association with the stone may suggest a shipment that included not only the major building blocks for a church, but elements for its adornment as well. building program for which this cargo was destined, but the patronage and mechanisms behind such projects. Continued excavation will surely lead to additional inds. he dynamic marine environment has resulted in the breakage and erosion of objects, making reassembly and even accurate object counts rather diicult. Despite these challenges, it is clear that many pieces were transported in a rough “quarry state,” designed for inishing locally, wherever local might have been. To facilitate research on these heavy elements, a program of 3D documentation uses high-precision structured light scanning to create models of each stone ind, allowing for virtual reassembly of individual eleOpposite page, from top: Conservator R. Stark carefully cleans a well-preserved panel fragment from the chancel screen; INA Associate Director K. Trethewey investigates a large iron concretion attached to a rock in the sand. This page: Conservator A. Oron prepares to move a fragment of the ambo with INA Director S. Matthews. 10 INA QUARTERLY 43.3/4 FALL/WINTER 2016 ments and larger architectural features. PAINT BY NUMBERS AND MORE Small inds discovered in association with the stone may suggest a shipment that included not only the major building blocks for a church, but elements for its adornment as well. In a jarring contrast to the blue-green depths of the underwater environment, small lumps of golden orpiment and red-orange realgar—both compounds of arsenic—stand out. Such minerals have been found on ships before, including at Serçe Limanı, where they were interpreted as depilatory agents in a grooming kit. he Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder (35.31) noted that these bright minerals were used as pigments to color paints, which seems more likely in this context. Chunks of amber glass and small slabs of polished marble in shades of green and white or grey may have served other decorative purposes as well. While the cargo of architectural and decorative elements speaks for a ship- ment of goods destined for quite lavish construction, excavation has revealed other artifacts that tell a somewhat less lofty tale, relecting the lives of sailors and perhaps their own private commercial initiatives. Kapitän’s records include some number of transport amphoras, which most have assumed to relect the crew’s provisions, loaded at the ship’s point of origin and restocked as necessary along the way. But dozens of amphora lids discovered in a discrete area of the site over the past three seasons raise the possibility that these jars relect a secondary cargo of some processed agricultural commodity like wine or oil. he number cannot compare with the 900 jars on the 7th-century Yassıada vessel, but it raises questions about how such opportunistic ventures might be explained in the context of an imperial shipment. An assortment of fragmentary cooking and dining wares in a variety of forms and fabrics might also hint at a more diverse crew than the earlier model afords. WWW.NAUTICALARCH.ORG 11 JUSTIN LEIDWANGER AND ELIZABETH S. GREENE their ship. he reading of the whole assemblage hinges on the smallest of details. In this way, the wreck can provide a view of past connections alongside an important reminder of the Mediterranean’s role in linking communities. Rather than serving as a boundary between modern nations, the sea - then as now - promoted trade, cultural exchange, and the mingling of ideas and identities. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS he Marzamemi Maritime Heritage Project would not be possible without the collaboration of many institutions and individuals, especially Sebastiano Tusa and Nicolò Bruno of the Sicilian Soprintendenza del Mare, Matteo Azzaro and Rafaele Amore of El Cachalote Diving Center in Marzamemi, and Leopoldo Repola and his team from Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples. The new elements raise questions about not only the size and scale of the religious building program for which this cargo was destined, but the patronage and mechanisms behind such projects. 12 INA QUARTERLY 43.3/4 FALL/WINTER 2016 ers. Multiple sizes of bolts, clenched nails, and small tacks ofer preliminary evidence for a hull that was perhaps not so diferent in construction from any other vessel sailing the late antique Mediterranean. he ever-present threat of shipworm (teredo navalis) damage to timbers is visible in preserved fragments of lead sheathing with small tack holes, while wooden fragments crushed beneath columns are riddled with worm casings. Was this ship purpose-built to carry columns from imperial quarries, or was its last voyage one of many opportunistic journeys by proit-minded sailors who stopped at Proconnesus and perhaps other quarries for their inal consignment? RETHINKING THE “CHURCH WRECK” After four ield seasons at Marzamemi, it is abundantly clear that no one object or class of objects should dominate the socioeconomic interpretation of the site. he stone architectural elements, ceramic cargo, galley wares, hull fasteners, and small inds together ofer glimpses into the varied models for late antique maritime connectivity that might be read into the shipwreck assemblage. Among the most critical questions at stake are the roles of diferent agents—the emperor himself at Constantinople, the provincial elite, and the hungry urban masses—in driving economic enterprise. Religious construction programs featured prominently in daily life during the 6th century, serving as symbols not only of faith and architectural ingenuity, but also of wealth, patronage, and imperialism. To understand the vessel’s inal journey we must look at the columns and capitals, the ambo, chancel screen and other religious furnishings together with archaeological markers of the sailors and This page: Undergraduate student L. Hafen checks of architectural pieces as they await transport back to shore for conservation. Opposite page, from left: 3D recording of a capital showing the surface erosion and pitting of the marble; Photo of fragmentary chancel screen panel showing part of a christogram. INA Afiliated Scholar Stanford University ELIZABETH S. GREENE INA Afiliated Scholar Brock University Marzamemi Maritime Heritage Project, visit the Facebook page (@MarzamemiProject) and website: marzamemi.stanford.edu. 0 SUGGESTED READING Kapitän, G. 1969. “The Church Wreck off Marzamemi.” Archaeology 22.2: 122-133. Kapitän, G. 1980. “Elementi architettonici per una basilica dal relitto navale del VI secolo di Marzamemi (Siracusa).” Corsi di cultura sull’arte ravennate e bizantina 27: 71–136. JUSTIN LEIDWANGER FOR MORE INFORMATION about the “church wreck” excavation and the PHOTOS: THIS PAGE: J. LEIDWANGER; OPPOSITE PAGE, LEFT: L. REPOLA FIRST CLUES TO THE SHIP What sort of ship was needed to carry this massive cargo of building stone, decorative elements, and amphoras? In a discussion of stone as a symbol of luxury, Pliny (36.1) noted the cutting of mountains to yield marbles of a thousand colors, and the ships that transport them across the seas, but ofered no clues about the construction of the actual vessels. he sole hint at specialization comes from the satiric novel of Petronius (Satyricon 117.12), in which a complaining servant compares himself to a beast of burden or a stone-carrying ship (lapidaria navis). Scholars often imagine such vessels as heavily built with reinforced hulls to accommodate the dense loads. While the shallow dynamic environment combined with the warm waters of southeast Sicily ofer little hope of extensive wood preservation—even in the 1960s, Kapitän recorded only “splinters” of wood from the site—clues to the hull are preserved in the concreted shells of hundreds of iron nails and other fasten- Among the key staf in 2016 were several INA regulars: Director Sheila Matthews and Associate Director Ken Trethewey. Additional thanks are owed to the Guardia di Finanza, Subsalve Inc., and Houston Scuba Academy. For the 2016 season we are grateful for inancial support from the INA Archaeological Committee as well as Stanford University, Brock University, and the Loeb Classical Library Foundation. Leidwanger, J., and S. Tusa. 2016. “Marzamemi II ‘Church Wreck’ Excavation: 2015 Field Season.” Archaeologia Maritima Mediterranea 13: 129-143. (Reports on the 2013 and 2014 ield seasons can be found in earlier volumes of the same journal) Russell, B. 2013. The Economics of the Roman Stone Trade. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .5 m WWW.NAUTICALARCH.ORG 13