The challenge of extracting the Ses Fontanelles wreck

The island institution, along with the University of Barcelona, Cádiz, and the Balearic Islands, organized a reflection session this Monday, December 9th, to design a roadmap for the coming months.

The Consell de Mallorca has gathered in Barcelona the technical committee of experts for the extraction of the Ses Fontanelles wreck. The island institution, together with the University of Barcelona, Cádiz, and the Balearic Islands, has organized a reflection day on the extraction and conservation-restoration of the Ses Fontanelles wreck, which served to design a roadmap for the coming months.

Archaeologists Miquel Àngel Cau-Ontiveros, Darío Bernal-Cassola, and Enrique García lead this technical team, which also includes other professionals such as researcher Carlos de Juan; conservators Luis Carlos Zambrano and Elisa Fernández; archaeologists Sebastià Munar, Roberto La Rocca, and Xim Gual de Torrella, among others, and José Ramón García Ledesma, an engineer from Ports IB. Additionally, the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQUA) participated for the first time in the meeting and expressed its willingness to collaborate in the extraction and conservation project, making its resources available.

During the session, different experiences of extractions and excavations in wrecks with conditions similar to those of Ses Fontanelles were shared, such as the case of Marausa II, a Sicilian case explained by the Italian archaeologist Roberto La Rocca.

The main challenge for the technical committee of experts working on the Ses Fontanelles extraction and conservation project is the lack of the ship's keel. This was one of the main discoveries of the excavation campaign carried out last April and now raises the possibility of extracting the wreck in two large blocks, instead of as a whole, as was initially designed. The absence of this part of the ship was a great surprise to the technical team of the excavations, as it was unthinkable given the good condition of the wood.

In this way, the committee of experts has signed three major conclusions after the meeting. The first is the ratification of the appropriateness of extracting the ship, since if it is not done, its integrity is at risk: "in the same way that it appeared with a storm, it can disappear for the same reason any day," explained one of the committee's directors, Miquel Àngel Cau-Ontiveros.

Secondly, the scientific group is clear that the extraction should be done with the fewest number of pieces possible. Now the extraction project and its methodology are being reconsidered, and the team will begin to work on proposing a new option in the coming months.

Finally, the experts have noted that the conservation process after the extraction will have to be done with polyethylene glycol or with cauramine: the most favorable option will be decided once the wood is in the laboratory and a diagnosis of its real state can be made.