Liburnian.
L/B:
ca. 110 × 16 (33.5m × 4.9m). Hull:
wood. Comp.:
ca. 75. Built:
Tunisia(?);<241 bce.
In 1969, a commercial dredger working in the harbor of Marsala in western Sicily uncovered the remains of several shipwrecks. The following summer, Honor Frost led a team of underwater archaeologists to the site, which over four seasons yielded a pile of ballast stones, a forty-foot length of keel, together with about one-third of the original port side of the hull and fragments of the starboard side. Most significant was the recovery of a portion of the sternpost from which archaeologists were able to determine the shape of the hull. The fact that the stern had been driven into the relatively hard bottom of seaweed and sand indicated that the ship had sunk stern first, probably after being rammed. This, combined with the presence of ballast stone and the absence of amphorae, suggested that she was a warship.
Those crew who could get off took with them their personal weapons—the ship's primary armament was the bow ram—but they left ample evidence of what they ate. Food remains show that the crew had an excellent diet that included deer, goat, horse, ox, pig, and sheep, as well as olives, nuts, and fruit. Most unexpected was the recovery of the stems of plant material, which botanical testing showed to be hops, nettles, or cannabis. Circumstances suggest the latter, and that possibly it was chewed during long-distance rowing or before going into battle, just as the Royal Navy later issued rum to its crews. Mixed in with the ballast stones were the bones of a dog and a human, possibly an injured crewman trapped by the shifting ballast.
The vessel is believed to have been a "long ship" known as a Liburnian, an oared vessel with seventeen sweeps on either side, each pulled by two oarsmen. Small and swift, Liburnians were employed for carrying messages and for scouting. All other known wrecks of the period have been of "round" cargo ships. The presence of this wreck at Marsala is historically significant, because it was near this port—then known as Lilybaeum—that Rome defeated Carthage in the Battle of the Aegates (Egadi) Islands, sinking about 50 ships and capturing another 70 from a fleet of 220 ships. This battle concluded the first Punic War and forced the Carthaginians to give up their hold in western Sicily. In the first millennium bce, Mediterranean trade was dominated by three great powers in turn. First were the Phoenicians, whose chief ports were Sidon and Tyre in what is now Lebanon, from the eleventh to the eighth century. They were succeeded by their colonial offspring, Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, who lost to Rome after a succession of three Punic Wars, fought from 264 to 241 bce, from 218 to 201 bce and, finally, 149-146 bce.
One of the most fascinating discoveries about Carthaginian shipbuilding was the high degree of literacy and organization associated with it. Careful examination of the Punic ship showed that the builders had written on the various members to mark their placement in relation to one another. Archaeologists and historians of shipbuilding concur that "the findings on the Punic ship show a degree of planning and organization that is without parallel until the Industrial Revolution."
Tragically, despite the enormous historical, archaeological, and cultural value of this find, the Punic Marsala ship has been all but abandoned. After several years of neglect, in 1992 the Sicilian parliament voted to designate funds for repair and conservation of the ship's remains, which had been raised and housed in Marsala. Three years later, before any money had been spent, the parliament annulled the grant.
Frost, "How Carthage Lost the Sea"; Frost et al., "Marsala Punic Ship"; Punic Ship.
