Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-qmkzp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-30T01:15:12.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Xlendi Bay shipwreck (Gozo, Malta): a petrographic and typological study of an archaic ceramic cargo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2021

Maxine Anastasi ,
Claudio Capelli ,
Timmy Gambin  and
Jean-Christophe Sourisseau
Maxine Anastasi*
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Claudio Capelli
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita [DISTAV], Università degli Studi di Genova, Genova, Italy
Timmy Gambin
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Jean-Christophe Sourisseau
Affiliation:
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CCJ, Aix-en-Provence, France
*
Corresponding author: Maxine Anastasi, Email: maxine.anastasi@um.edu.mt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An underwater survey off the southwest coast of the island of Gozo revealed a well-preserved shipwreck 110 m below the surface. The site belonged to a previously unknown wreck with a cargo of volcanic millstones and ceramic amphorae dating to the 7th century BC. This article presents the first results of thin-section analysis taken from the pottery objects, and concludes that the ship was carrying a heterogeneous cargo of amphora-borne goods from the Maltese islands, North Tunisia, and possibly Sicily, making it the earliest, known shipwreck in the central Mediterranean; and provides the earliest evidence for Maltese external trade in the central Mediterranean.

حطام سفينة زليندي من قوزو (مالطا ): تحليل بتروغرافي لشحنة خزفية قديمة

ماكسين أناستاسي وآخرون .

كشف مسح لقاع البحر قبالة الساحل الجنوبي الغربي لجزيرة قوزو، عن حطام سفينة محفوظ جيداً على عمق 110 م . تحت السطح البحر . ينتمي الموقع إلى حطام سفينة غير معروف سابقاً مع شحنة من حجارة الأميال من الصخر البركاني و قوارير خزفية تعود إلى القرن السابع قبل الميلاد . تقدم هذه الورقة النتائج الأولى للتحليل المقطعي الرقيق (thin-section analysis) المأخوذ من اللقى الفخارية، وتخلص إلى أن السفينة كانت تحمل شحنة متنوعة من البضائع المنقولة بالقوارير من الجزر المالطية و شمال تونس وربما صقلية، مما يجعلها أقدم حطام سفينة معروف في وسط البحر الأبيض المتوسط ؛ ويقدم أقدم دليل على التجارة المالطية الخارجية في وسط البحر الأبيض .

Information

Type
Part 2: Fieldwork Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 52 , November 2021 , pp. 166 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Libyan Studies 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anastasi, M. 2018. Tracing identity from insularity: Maltese industries in the Late Punic and Roman Period. In: Kouremenos, A. (ed.), Insularity and Identity in the Roman Mediterranean. Oxbow, Oxford: 125–143.Google Scholar
Anastasi, M. 2019. Pottery from Roman Malta. Archaeopress, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barone, G., Mazzoleni, P., Raneri, S., Tanasi, D. and Giuffrida, A. 2015. Archaeometric characterization of Middle Bronze Age pottery from the settlement at Borġ in-Nadur. In Tanasi, D. and Vella, N.C. (eds.), The Late Prehistory of Malta: Essays on Borġ in-Nadur and Other Sites. Archaeopress, Oxford: 99–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechtold, B. 2018. La distribuzione di anfore da trasporto maltesi fuori dall'arcipelago: nuovi dati. In: Vella, N.C., Frendo, A.J. and Vella, H.C.R. (eds), The Lure of the Antique: Essays on Malta and Mediterranean Archaeology in in Honour of Anthony Bonanno. Peeters, Leuven: 257–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechtold, B. 2019. IV.3.2 The trade routes of Carthaginian amphorae. In Russo, A., Guarneri, F., Xella, P. and Zamora López, J.A. (eds), Carthago. The Immortal Myth. Electa, Milan: 158–160.Google Scholar
Bechtold, B., Montana, G., Randazzo, L. and Schmidt, K. 2015. Le Produzioni di Anfore Puniche della Sicilia Occidentale (VII-III/II sec. a.C). Carthage Studies 9. University of Gent, Gent.Google Scholar
Bruno, B. and Capelli, C. 2000. Nuovi tipi di anfore da trasporto a Malta. In D'Amico, C. and Tampellini, C. (eds.), Le Scienze della Terra e l'Archeometria, Atti della 6a Giornata, Este, 26–27 febbraio 1999. Grafica Atestina, Este: 59–65.Google Scholar
Buchner, G. and Ridgway, D. 1993. Pithekoussai I, tombe 1-723 scavate dal 1952 al 1961 (Monumenti Antichi, Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, serie monografica, IV). vol. 3. Giorgio Bretschneider Editore, Rome.Google Scholar
Capelli, C. and Bonifay, M. 2014. Archéométrie et archéologie des céramiques africaines: une approche pluridisciplinaire, 2. Nouvelles données sur la céramique culinaire et les amphores. In: Poulou-Papadimitriou, N., Nodarou, E. and Kilikoglou, V. (eds), LRCW 4. Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean. BAR International Series 2616 (I). Archaeopress, Oxford: 235–254.Google Scholar
Capelli, C., Cabella, R. and Piazza, M. in press. Analisi petrografiche delle ceramiche. In: Molinari A, A. and Meo, A. (eds.), Mazara/Mazar: nel ventre della città medievale (secoli VII-XV). Edizione degli scavi (1997) in via Tenente Gaspare Romano. All'Insegna del Giglio, Florence.Google Scholar
Ciasca, A. 1985. Note sulle distribuzione di alcune ceramiche puniche maltesi. II Colloque International sur l'Histoire et l'Archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord (Grenoble, 1983). Bulletin Archéologique 19: 1–24.Google Scholar
Di Maggio, C., Agate, M., Contino, A., Basilone, L. and Catalano, R. 2009. Unità a limiti inconformi utilizzate per la cartografia dei depositi quaternari nei fogli CARG della Sicilia nord-occidentale. Il Quaternario. Italian Journal of Quaternary Sciences 22(2): 345–364.Google Scholar
Docter, R. 2007. Transportamphoren: 1. Archaische Transportamphoren. In Niemeyer, H.G., Docter, R.F., Schmidt, K. and Bechtold, B. (eds), Karthago: Die Ergebnisse Der Hamburger Grabung Unter Dem Decumanus Maximus. Verlag Philipp Von Zabern, Mainz: 616–62.Google Scholar
Docter, R., Annis, M., Jacob, L., and Blessing, G. 1997. Early central Italian transport amphorae from Carthage: Preliminary results. Rivista di Studi Fenici 25(1): 15–58.Google Scholar
Gambin, T., Drap, P., Cheminsky, B., Hyttinen, K. and Kozak, G. 2018. Exploring the Phoenician shipwreck off Xlendi bay, Gozo. A report on methodologies used for the study of a deep-water site. Underwater Technologies 35(3): 71–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gambin, T., Sourisseau, J.-C. and Anastasi, M. 2021. The cargo of the Phoenician shipwreck off Xlendi Bay, Gozo: analysis of the objects recovered between 2014–2017 and their historical contexts. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572414.2021.1943403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gras, M. 1985. Trafics Tyrrhéniens Archaïques. École Française de Rome, Rome.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iliopoulos, I., Cau, M.A. and Montana, G. 2009. Le anfore fenicio-puniche prodotte nel Mediterraneo occidentale: caratteristiche petrografiche degli impasti siciliani e spagnoli. In: Gualtieri, S., Bandini, G. and Fabbri, B. (eds.), Le classi ceramiche: situazione degli studi. Atti della 10a Giornata di Archeometria (Roma, 5-7 aprile 2006). Edipuglia, Rome: 157–162.Google Scholar
Mommsen, H., Bonanno, A., Chetcuti Bonavita, K., Kakoulli, I., Musumeci, M., Sagona, C., Schwedt, A., Vella, N.C. and Zacharias, N. 2006. Characterisation of Maltese pottery of the late Neolithic, Bronze Age and Punic period by neutron activation analysis. In Maggetti, M. and Messiga, B. (eds), Geomaterials in Cultural Heritage 157. Geological Society, London: 81–89.Google Scholar
Nizzo, V. 2007. Ritorno ad Ischia. Dalla stratigrafia della necropoli di Pithekoussai alla tipologia dei materiali, (Collection du Centre Jean-Bérard, 26). Centre Jean Bérard, Naples.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, R. 2020. Post-medieval Maltese earthenware and its makers: Unearthing a forgotten industry. International Journal Historical Archaeology 24: 422–55. doi.org/10.1007/s10761-019-00512-z.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, R., Raneri, S., Mazzoleni, P., Vella, N.C., Barone, G. and De Clercq, W. 2018. Neighbourly ties: characterizing local and Sicilian pottery in post-medieval Malta. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 19: 575–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedley, H.M., House, M.R. and Waugh, B. 1976. The geology of Malta and Gozo. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 87(3): 325–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedley, H.M., House, M.R. and Waugh, B. 1978. The geology of the Pelagian block: the Maltese islands. In: Nairn, A.E.M., Kanes, W.H. and Stehli, F.G. (eds), The Ocean Basins and Margins. Springer, Boston, MA: 417–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedley, H.M. and Hughes Clarke, M. 2002. Limestone Isles in a Crystal Sea: the Geology of the Maltese Islands. PEG, Malta.Google Scholar
Pirone, F.S. and Tykot, R.H. 2017. Trace elemental characterization of Maltese pottery from the late Neolithic to middle bronze age. Open Archaeology 3(1): 202–221. doi:10.1515/opar-2017-0012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramón Torres, J. 1995. Las ánforas fenicio-púnicas del Mediterráneo central y occidental. Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona.Google Scholar
Renzulli, A., Santi, P., Gambin, T. and Bueno Serrano, P. 2019. Pantelleria Island as a centre of production for the Archaic Phoenician trade in basaltic millstones: new evidence recovered and sampled from a shipwreck off Gozo (Malta) and a terrestrial site at Cádiz (Spain). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 24: 338–349.Google Scholar
Sagona, C. 2002. The Archaeology of Punic Malta. Peeters, Leuven.Google Scholar
Schmidt, K. and Becthold, B. 2013. Fabrics of Malta. In FACEM (version 06/12/2013). Available at: http://www.facem.at/project-papers.phpGoogle Scholar
Tanasi, D. 2011. The prehistoric pottery. In Tanasi, D. and Vella, N.C. (eds.), Site, Artefacts and Landscape: Prehistoric Borġ in-Nadur, Malta. Polimetrica, Monza: 71–157.Google Scholar