What started the trail to this site was some lead anchors which were discovered off this
island, and it was thought that they were so old that they may have related to the battle
of the Egadi Islands.
According to the sources, to the tales of the old divers, Sicilian divers, we know that
in that place they found more than 300 lead anchors, all lined up. It was a sort of series
of those anchors. And since the, the, the coast, is, is, it's not possible to land in
that coast because there is a very high cliff. The only reason to have all those anchors
in that area it was because a fleet, a huge fleet was mooring there.
This also happens to be a well-travelled thoroughfare throughout history between North Africa and
mainland Italy. So we knew that this would be a efficacious place to look for trade route
remains, shipwrecks that may have come through the Egadi islands en-route to other places,
and of course this battle.
So putting it together it made sense that we could mount a large-scale programme, which
we, which we've done, which began with a large multi-beam survey of an area over 250, 260
square kilometres. Year after year of verification.
We indeed have discovered many of those trade vessels that moved along these routes, and
yes of course we have found the remains of this very important battle.
That's the ram there, with the, with the big shadow behind it. See the big shadow behind the ram?
What archaeologists tend to do is just go out and measure things with measuring tapes,
this really can be quite difficult to do, and it takes a lot of man-hours so it can
be expensive. Or what they'll do is they'll use side-scan sonar, they'll use something
they tow behind a boat. That's constantly in motion and whilst it produces good plans
there are irregularities in what's produced because of the motion, and what this does
from a fixed point is more precision. It's more accurate. We can survey an area of about
50 to 60 meters across in really minute detail, and then get plans that we can then draw and
use for archaeological purposes.
So we know the other ram is north-northwest of this ram, about 22 meters.
Yep.
Let's go check the positions inside and see if we can identify what this is. But it also
might be on the video. Now if you go 22 meters here it's going to be out a little further
over [Yeah] here.
Once we locate what we believe to be the other ram, could be this one actually too because
you're two meters on the other side.
Yeah yeah, so let's measure that one.
It's 19 meters.
19 and a half.
I think we're accurate. How about this one down here, how far is that?
I think the sector scan is really good for archaeology because it's a precision type
tool. It's not a high gross area type tool where you want to go one mile by two miles.
Within a 30 to 40 meter range you can really start identifying targets quickly and easily.
The importance of the sector scan is it confirms the ROV observations, so if we have, you know,
if we can duplicate the results in the sonar that we're seeing with the ROV it pretty much
locks it up.
These were both weapons but they were also designed to protect the ship in their manufacture,
being cast on the bow of the the ship gives us a very good idea of bow structures for,
for warships of this period, which also indicates relative sizes of the ships.
With the wood in, trapped inside gives us an idea of the materials that were used, the
actual wood types. And some of the other aspects about how they were financed. The economic
impact of building a fleet, losing a fleet. So a lot of these things we're, we're able
to discuss now with, with data, archaeological data rather than based on the supposition
from historical text or interpreting iconography.
In addition to helmets, we've gotten a tremendous number amphoras of many types. And what's
so exciting now are the small finds. Just today, as a matter fact, I received a metallurgical
report from The University of Nottingham who was looking at some of the metal objects we
pulled out of the amphoras and rams. And it's very exciting because we've got an object
that was clearly of ancient, ancient manufacture in the techniques, in the, in the materials
of bronze and copper and don't know what it is yet. But that's what we're looking at now
that these small objects coming out of the amphoras and inside of the rams are going
to tell us a lot about what was on ancient warships.
We've used a microprobe in order to determine what the material is made of. It's made from
several different kinds of metal: leaded bronze, bronze, and especially important in this case
arsenical copper, which is a kind of alloy which is very common in the ancient world,
but very rare in the modern world. So this piece is clearly of some great antiquity.
Based on our compositional and metallic graphic analyses, I'm pretty sure that this artefact
is consistent in age with the date of the battle at Egadi.
This is the first ancient battle site, naval battle site, that's been discovered underwater.
It's quite surprising actually that before this that none have ever been found before.
Despite all the literary references and the importance of naval battles and sea power
in the ancient world, we've never found a battle site before, and this is the first
one that has been discovered, and it's a major engagement between the Romans and the Carthaginians.
241 BC decided the end of the Punic war. The Romans were successful and it really set them
on the route to finally becoming an empire, and really taking over the whole of the Mediterranean.
This is the beginnings of that, which is exciting.
We still endeavour to, to define the extent of the site. It is so massive, it's over five
square kilometres at this point that we have material, being discovered. I still at this
point don't know where it stops. The ability to go down, and fully analyse it, will, decades,
decades more of work.
For the Romans it was the first stage to acquire the complete process, the complete control
of the Mediterranean. So the First Punic war and the battle of the Egadi was the real first
test, in which they tested their possibility, their capability to be a naval power and it
was a success for them.