Located almost 50 meters deep, the study of Illes Formigues II, a Roman wreck from the 1st century BC that sank off the coast in Palamós (Baix Empordà), is not a simple task for the archaeologists of the Center of Underwater Archeology of Catalonia.
His latest work campaign, however, has been especially fruitful. The researchers have focused on the stern of the ship, where a total of 34 entire amphorae have been documented and extracted, which are already in the process of conservation and study of the contents in the laboratory of the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya.
The good state of conservation of the cargo of the Illes Formigues II, made up of Baetic amphorae from Andalusia, has made it possible to identify in detail the contents of salted fish and fish sauces that the ship was transporting. Elements of the drying pump have also been documented.
What has caught the most attention of archaeologists, however, is that once the amphorae were extracted, the wood of the ship was partially analyzed. If there is one element that makes this underwater site unique on our coast, it is that it preserves both the planks of its structure and the load it transported.
The wood in the stern area, which made up the floor of the ship's hold, where the amphorae were stowed, hid a series of surprising painted numeral marks, mottos that have no parallel on any other ancient ship located in the Mediterranean, according to say the specialists.
Archaeologists at the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya believe that these signs could be references to the order number of the amphorae and that they were especially important when the containers were removed for maintenance from the bilge and their subsequent relocation.
The bilge of a wreck, according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), is the lower cavity of the ship, which is located on the keel and in which the waters that, from different sources, filter through the sides and the deck of the ship, from where they are later expelled by the pumps.
That is why it has been precisely in this space next to which different elements of the bilge pump have been located such as the wooden box for collecting water, the bronze shaft of the pump and a pad that was also made of bronze.
The excavation of the site between Palafrugell and Palamós, on the Costa Brava, is part of the four-year archaeological research project "The Formigues Islands II wreck and the trade of aquatic products in the Northeast Peninsular" led by the Center for Underwater Archeology of Catalonia (HELMET).
