A joint mission organized by underwater archaeologists from Italy and France was recently deployed to the site of the Capo Corso 2 shipwreck, which was first spotted in 2012 and is located at a depth of 1,150 feet (350) meters near the coast of Corsica to the south of France. During remote excavations of the ship, the archaeologists recovered an impressive collection of high-quality unfinished glass and ornate Roman glassware in various forms, Italy’s National Superintendency for Underwater Cultural Heritage reports.
This is only the second Mediterranean shipwreck with a cargo made up exclusively of glass ever found, and the loss of this cargo would have represented a significant financial loss to the sponsors of the voyage.
Based on the appearance of the ship, the archaeologists believe it would have been built and wrecked sometime between the late first century and the early second century AD. The Capo Corso 2 was a Roman merchant vessel , and at this point its direction of travel at the time of its sinking has not been conclusively determined.
A Spectacular Cargo Meets a Tragic End
The team of Italian and French archaeologists began their exploration of the Capo Corso 2 with a photogrammetric survey. This procedure was designed to collect photographic evidence about the current state of the shipwreck site, to assess how sedimentation and possibly human actions might have affected it.
With this vital information in hand, they…
