Roman Shipwreck Discovered Near the Balearic Islands

CABRERA, SPAIN—Last year, fisherman working off the coast of the tiny island of Cabrera, in the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park, let the researchers at the Balearics Institute for the Study of Marine Archaeology (IBEAM) know that they had found pottery fragments in their nets. El País reports that the IBEAM team then investigated the site with a robot and found the wreckage of an 1,800-year-old Roman ship under more than 200 feet of water. The ship, which had been carrying an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 amphoras, is thought to have been transporting fermented fish sauce between North Africa, Spain, France, and Rome. Most of the amphoras at the shipwreck site measure about three feet long and are thought to have originated in North Africa, while the smaller jars are thought to have originated in southern Portugal. “As far as we know, this is the first time that a completely unaltered wreck has been found in Spanish waters,” said marine archaeologist Javier Rodríguez. For more on underwater archaeology, go to “Discovering Terror.”