The Port-Vendres 4 Shipwreck Cargo: evidence of the Roman wine trade in the western Mediterranean

Abstract

The Port-Vendres 4 shipwreck is evidence of coastal export trade between Hispania Citerior and Narbonne in 40/30 BC. The cargo is made up of a particular assemblage of Roman wine amphoras (Pascual 1, Dressel 1B and Lamboglia 2) destined for Gallic markets. Archaeological and archaeometric analyses conducted on a selection of the amphoras allowed the provenance of the cargo to be identified as Hispania Citerior and the central-southern Tyrrhenian coast of Italy. Iluro and/or Baetulo are proposed as the ports of departure, enabling the reconstruction of the trade route and the historical and economic significance of this shipwreck.

Lost at sea: Identifying the post-depositional alteration of amphorae in ancient shipwrecks

“…4B). Precipitation of secondary calcite in amphorae from shipwreck has also been reported in previous studies (Buxeda I Garrigós et al 2005;Martínez Ferreras et al 2015), and in pottery buried in terrestrial sites (Freestone et al 1985;Buxeda I Garrigós and Cau Ontiveros 1995;Buxeda I Garrigós 1999;Maritan and Mazzoli 2004;Belfiore et al 2007;Maritan 2020). In our study, both processes were recognised in the calcareous matrix of Fabric 1, and this may have been due to the redistribution of carbonate material from the clay matrix and/or microfossil inclusions, as Cau noted.…”

“…Previous studies of amphorae from shipwrecks have identified the same elements with great potential for alteration in the marine environment (Nieto and Picon 1986;Taylor et al 1997;Martínez Ferreras et al 2015). The alkaline elements, such as Cs, K and Rb, are depleted in amphorae from the marine environment (Maritan 2020), as in our Fabrics 1 and 3.…”

“…Some geochemical studies on Mediterranean shipwrecks have identified possible elements that could have been altered within submerged amphorae, including Ca, Cs, K, Mg, Na, Rb and Sr (e.g. Nieto and Picon 1986;Pradell et al 1996;Taylor et al 1997;Buxeda I Garrigós et al 2005;Martínez Ferreras et al 2015), and laboratory experiments have been conducted on ceramic briquettes soaked in seawater (Montana et al 2014). However, little or no direct comparisons have been made between sherds from the same source buried in both marine and terrestrial environments.…”

“…However, little or no direct comparisons have been made between sherds from the same source buried in both marine and terrestrial environments. With the exception of Martínez Ferreras et al (2015), most studies have applied geochemistry without the supporting mineralogical and microstructural information offered by ceramic petrography. The present paper attempts to fill this gap using a large dataset of Hellenistic and Late Roman Republican transport amphorae from numerous sites along the well-known ancient maritime trade route of the Dalmatian coast of southern Croatia (Fig.…”

“…Both shape and epigraphic information are not always available from small fragmented sherds and compositional analysis of the clay paste of transport amphorae via ceramic petrography and geochemistry has therefore been widely applied to determine the production location or provenance of amphorae and other types of ancient transport vessels in Western Mediterranean (Martínez Ferreras et al 2007;Martínez Ferreras et al 2015;Fantuzzi et al 2016;Fantuzzi et al 2019;Moreno Megías et al 2020), in Central Mediterranean in Italy (Barra Bagnasco et. al.…”