to find out what it actually was that we discovered. Why does Indiana Jones never have this problem? Fortunately, our next site was one that we could have understood with our eyes closed. It was, quite simply, a pile of ballast stones (to be precise, ballast pile 98-b). Ballast stones come in basically two sizes (big and small) and two types (big and small). They are usually roundish. They form piles. Sometimes some of the stones roll away from the piles. Sometimes there is datable pottery in the piles; the pottery in 98-b appears to be 12th-13th century AD Byzantine, contemporary with the Camalti Burnu shipwreck currently being excavated off Marmara island. That’s about it really.
Well, not entirely. While on our way from ballast pile 98-b to a nearby Byzantine wreck, we discovered two more distinct ballast piles along the line of the cape, which seems to justify further comment. Ballast (stones, pebbles, or even sand) has been reported from only about 50 ancient Mediterranean shipwreck sites, but was no doubt used by virtually all sea-going ships at one time or another, from the Bronze Age onwards. Some ancient ships were built in such a way that they required ballast in order to be trimmed properly. In rare cases, archaeologists have been able to determine the origin of the ballast (which was loaded fresh from the shore when needed) and so learn something about the route followed by the ship. However, a ballast pile without a ship is a different matter, because we don’t know if it represents a shipwreck or simply material cast overboard at need. The shallow depth and accessibility of all three of our ballast piles suggests they may have been salvaged and/or looted (there are no complete artifacts visible, and very few sherds). Then again, the rest of the cargo may have been perishable. In such circumstances, where we cannot confidently identify a shipwreck, we record the main features of the site in our locus (“isolated find”) database.Our final site for today was a heavily salvaged/looted Byzantine wreck of badly shattered and concreted amphoras. The rem
ains of the major types suggest two parallels: mid 6th century AD Spanish and 7th century AD Black Sea Coast, but there were a variety of other vessels (all very fragmentary) that we have yet to identify. One interesting feature was a fragment of a dolium (pl. dolia), a type of large pottery container (usually more like a ‘tank’ than an amphora) used for the fermentation or storage of wine. To date less than two dozen dolia have been reported from Mediterranean shipwrecks, and the question is still open as to whether the anticipated use of dolia influenced the design of the ship (for example, whether she was deep-keeled or flat-bottomed). In the case of this wreck, we will probably never know, as the ship’s hull would have been quickly destroyed in the shallow rocky area where she sank. We can now happily report that there is one boat, at least, that won’t be featuring in the “Shipwrecks of Anatolia” database anytime soon. A painstakingly delicate operation performed entirely with sledgehammers has restored our dinghy to life, and today she was back in service and looking good.
Unfortunately, however, other things must come to an end, including our daily field journal. Tomorrow is our last day of SOA’s 2001 field season, after which we will be packing up all our equipment and heading back home to the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in Bodrum. We hope you have enjoyed following our project! We will keep updating the SOA website every now and then as our research progresses, and you can still email us with questions or comments (soa@denizinsesi.com). Thanks for visiting!THE SHIPWRECKS OF ANATOLIA TEAM