The last phase of excavations at the Ses Fontanelles wreck begins

The Arqueomallornauta project has begun the last phase of excavations at the Ses Fontanelles shipwreck in Playa de Palma.

According to the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), this is an archaeological study in which the UIB's Civitas research group is participating. The aim is to check the current state of conservation of the ship, which will be removed in the coming months.

Throughout the month of April, the naval architecture of the sunken ship will be excavated, while the immediate surroundings of the 4th century AD shipwreck, one of the most important in the Mediterranean, will be surveyed.

Once the wreck has been extracted, it will be transferred to the castle of Sant Carles, where a pond will be built in which it will be preserved and where desalination work will be carried out for 18 months. This process will be open to the public so that citizens can visit the wreck.

Since the discovery of the wreck, the UIB research group has participated in the analysis and historical contextualisation of the data obtained in the excavation phase.

From this scientific study, new conclusions are expected to be drawn on the role of the Balearic archipelago in Mediterranean connectivity during Roman times. In addition, the Civitas group is also in charge of the initiatives to transfer the results, playing an active role in the preparation of the future exhibition.

Among the materials the UIB researchers are working with are almost 300 amphorae for transporting fermented fish sauces, oil and wine or fermented must for preserving fruit.

The historical importance of these amphorae is that they are complete and a hundred of them have painted inscriptions (the so-called 'tituli picti'), which makes the Ses Fontanelles wreck the largest collection of 'tituli picti' in Spain and one of the most important in the entire Roman world.

They have also located exceptional archaeological pieces such as a bow drill used by the master shipwright to repair the boat, which is the first of its kind ever found in Spain and one of the few preserved anywhere in the world. In addition, two shoes have been found (one made of esparto grass and one of leather), along with ‘cordam’ and organic remains of different kinds.

The excavation, which took place between November 2021 and February 2022, revealed the excellent state of conservation of the ship's naval architecture (12 meters long and six meters wide), with unique elements such as the wooden bulkheads separating the cargo and the preservation of the bilge well. It is worth highlighting the good state of preservation of the wood thanks to the anoxic burial environment.

The researchers have also highlighted as exceptional the geographical origin of the ship (from the area around Carthago Spartaria, Cartagena), which makes it the first known Roman wreck with cargo from this region to be wrecked in Mediterranean waters, and the date of the sinking, in the early phase of late antiquity (3rd and 4th centuries AD), a time when there are few known vessels in the Mediterranean and even fewer with Hispanic cargo.

The excavation phase also made it possible to identify a possible Late Punic wreck loaded with wine amphorae from Ibiza in the vicinity of the Ses Fontanelles wreck.

The wreck has a series of weaknesses and threats due to its location. There is a risk of potential destruction if the storms that led to its discovery were to occur again.

Furthermore, it is subject to intense anthropic pressure, as it is located on one of Palma's busiest beaches. For all these reasons, work is being carried out to make it possible to extract the hull of the boat to guarantee its conservation and future museumization and valuation.