Underwater Roman Site in Slovenia Explored

News March 13, 2024

Slovenia Fir Mast
(Slovenian Institute for Underwater Archaeology)
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Slovenia Fir Mast

PORTOROZ, SLOVENIA—Divernet reports that underwater archaeologists have recovered part of an ancient sail, timber stakes, and pieces of two ship masts at Fizine, a submerged Roman site off Slovenia’s Adriatic coast. One of the mast fragments, which is made of fir and measures about three feet long, contains an oak pulley. Researchers also found more than 3,000 Roman pottery fragments, including sigillata that was mass-produced in the first century A.D., as well as pieces of imported amphoras, cooking wares, and fine tablewares dating to the Late Antique period. According to the researchers, the site’s sheltered location along the coast, and the wooden structures documented there, indicate that it likely served as a Roman harbor. To read about evidence of a Roman harbor uncovered in a Venetian waterway, go to “A Trip to Venice.”

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