Kızılburun
2007 Season
Our team returned to Kızılburun for the third field season in June 2007 to continue excavating the ancient Roman marble carrier. Since four of the eight column drums were relocated in the 2006 season, our attention was given foremost to continuing this process. The month of June was devoted to moving the Doric capital and remaining four drums. Taking the utmost care to preserve any remains beneath the drums, a new technique of harnessing the drums was implemented in order to reduce intrusion to the substratum and control the drums' final resting spots. In July, once these large marble pieces had been moved to an off-site location, we began excavating the remains that had been buried beneath the drums.
Although wooden remains were discovered beneath the drums, their role in the construction of the ship is difficult to determine on account of the degree of degradation and level of excavation. For the most part, the remains were friable and fragmented, with little continuity between pieces, but nonetheless indicated longitudinal and traverse timbers. Under one drum, the remains were contiguous, indicating a pattern of thin planking atop thicker beams, and future excavation may uncover further remains as suggested by plank impressions on the underside of the beams. It is tempting to assume that we have excavated the hull of the ship with ceiling planking, frames, and hull planking, but the traditional mortise-and-tenon fasteners were not found between the planking. Unfortunately, the season ended before excavation could verify the presence of any remaining wooden remains.
Even though the majority of the conspicuous wooden timbers had been excavated and raised during the 2007 season, the remains which still lie buried are the key to unlocking the ultimate question of the ship’s construction.
2006 Season
Our return to Kızılburun in 2006 necessitated the rebuilding of several vital camp structures constructed the previous summer but subsequently destroyed during the winter months by rough seas and an isolated cyclone. Working excavation dives for our entire team began on June 20, following the installation of the safety, mapping, and excavation equipment. Our archaeological goals were again twofold: 1) completing the excavation of the ship's secondary marble cargo in the area upslope of the central drum pile and 2) raising and relocating off-site some of the drums themselves.
The continued excavation of the upslope area resulted in the raising of more than one dozen large marble blocks, five additional grave stelai, a second marble pedestal, and a large 230-pound lead anchor stock. Small finds include a variety of Hellenistic ceramics (plates, pans, cups, jugs, and an oil lamp), a worn bronze coin, and a wonderful terracotta herm figurine. A herm was a kind of personified pillar that served as a boundary marker in transitional areas such as crossroads and doorways; places where underworld spirits were believed to congregate. Days of patient airlifting in the deep sand revealed a cluster of intact transport amphoras belonging to the Lamboglia 2 type (which represents the largest group of a single type from the wreck); another amphora in the group was likely produced in ancient Colchis on the eastern shores of the Black Sea.
Toward the middle of July, we turned our attention to the raising and relocation off-site of the wreck’s massive marble column drums, which weigh between 6 ½ and 7 ½ tons each. To accomplish this, we developed a system whereby each drum was outfitted with three nylon lifting straps, carefully maneuvered into place under the bottom of the drum, which often lay directly atop the ship's delicate wooden hull remains. Richard Fryburg of Subsalve, Inc. supplied us with four 4,000-pound lift balloons to raise each drum, and by the end of August we had succeeded in safely relocating off-site four of the eight drums (see photo above).
2005 Season
In early June, on the desolate cliffs near the wreck site, we constructed a modest camp that included a dormitory, galley, and artifact processing area. The remainder of our team of 20 slept aboard INA’s 65-foot long research vessel Virazon, which was moored in front of the camp. Most team members dived twice daily to the site, working in 20-minute shifts to chisel concretion, excavate with airlifts, or photograph artifacts in situ for mapping. Our work on the seabed was focused toward two goals: 1) excavation of the ship's secondary cargo adjacent to the drum pile, and 2) cleaning and mapping of the drums themselves. The area upslope of the drums is characterized by a group of large rectangular marble blocks which probably represent architectural elements associated with the column. This area also yielded an interesting array of newly-quarried, roughly-finished marble objects such as a small hand basin, the pedestal for one of two larger basins (at the opposite, deeper end of the drum pile), and an uninscribed grave stone or stele. Pieces of the ship’s gear include two lead anchor collars, a lead sounding weight, and an elaborate iron concretion that probably represents an important part of the ship's equipment.
During the course of the summer, it became clear that the exposed surfaces of many of the marble elements are fairly eroded, and thus it may never be possible to know with confidence to which architectural order the capital belongs. That the stones were newly quarried seems certain, since the drums are not fluted (a process that was completed only after a column was erected). These important features distinguish the Kızılburun column wreck from the roughly contemporary stone carrier discovered at Mahdia (Tunisia), which was laden with columns and Ionic capitals likely salvaged from an existing structure.
