Archaeologists excavating the hold of a Roman cargo ship off the coast of Mallorca have turned up something new. An entirely unknown type of amphora has been found inside the wreck, which is believed to have a specific design for a specific purpose.
The ship, known as the shipwreck of Ses Fontanelles, lies 220 feet (65 meters) off a popular beach near Palma, the capital of Mallorca. This new type of amphora is one of four different types identified in the packed hold of the cargo ship, reports Heritage Daily.
A Larger Amphora for Plant Oil
According to a paper published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, the ship had been travelling from Cartagena in south east of Spain. It had been carrying a cargo of mixed goods in several different types of amphora when it went down in the Mediterranean some time in the 4th century.
Diagram of the Roman shipwreck with its cargo. The yellow dots are the new type of amphora (Cau-Ontiveros, M.A., Bernal-Casasola, D., Pecci, A. et al / Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences)
An earlier 2022 study, also published in the journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Studies, had confirmed that there were multiple types of amphorae on board, including large “globular” amphorae located amidships. But it is only now that we know for sure that the cargo does indeed include something entirely new.
The amphora found in the hold have been subdivided into four groups, three of which are previously known. The most common are what…
