A Roman shipwreck, dating to the third century AD, has revealed signs of smuggling. [Sebastiano Tusa]
Posted on 04/28/2012 7:12:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Following an analysis of the jars and their contents, Tusa and colleagues concluded that the 52- by 16-foot ship was sailing from North Africa when she sank some 1,700 years ago, probably while trying to enter the local river Birgi.
In North Africa the vaulting tubes cost a quarter of what builders paid for them in Rome.
"It was a somewhat tolerated smuggling activity, used by sailors to round their poor salaries. They bought these small tubes cheaper in Africa, hid them everywhere within the ship, and then re-sold them in Rome," Tusa said.
According to Frank Sear, professor of classical studies at the University of Melbourne, vaults featuring rows of fictile tubes were most common in North Africa from about the 2nd century AD.
"The tiles were also frequently imported to Sicily and turn up in many places such as Syracuse, Catania, Marsala and Motya. There are good examples of them in the baths of the late Roman villa at Piazza Armerina," Sear, a leading authority on Roman architecture, told Discovery News.
The smuggled cargo, as well as the jars and ceramic food bowls used by the sailors, were recovered in perfectly preserved condition.
The old cargo vessel was completely covered by a thick layer of clay and sea grass meadows -- a sort of natural coating which has also preserved most of the ship's wooden structure.
"We have recovered more than 700 wooden pieces. Both the left and the right side of the hull has remained almost intact. Once reassembled, this will be the most complete Roman ship ever found," Tusa said
Now under restoration at a specialized lab in Salerno, the vessel is expected to be displayed in a local museum within two years.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
A Roman shipwreck, dating to the third century AD, has revealed signs of smuggling. [Sebastiano Tusa]
Ancient Greek Ships Carried More Than Just Wine
Nature | Friday, October 14, 2011 | Jo Marchant
Posted on 10/16/2011 7:46:09 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2793761/posts
|
|
|
| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
|
|
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
|
|
|
|
So, poor government regulation of a product resulted in a black market for that product, and people willing to risk life and limb to supply it.
Who'd have guessed that would happen?
They need to find and punish those smugglers now. lol
I’m not quite getting it. These tubes interlocked to do what? Build a stay-in-place form for a masonry arch?
Thanks hb for the kind remarks!
Maybe. The varying thickness of the ornamentation on these objects are consistent with a Crinoid stem, a marine animal attached to a solid substrate, or object.
Were they pure calcite, and round on the end view?
Look for them in in the literature as calcite jewelry: necklaces,, bracelets, ear-rings, etc.
We just glossed over that at culinary school, so I'm not completely clear on it myself.
/johnny
That makes it sound like they were structural but I don't have the slightest idea how they were used. They seem too small to have any value in a building.
/johnny
It’s a deal. I used to work in construction but not that long ago.
Smuggeling or just old fashioned small scale capitilism?
Fictile tubes (or vaulting tubes) are architectural elements that sustain and underline the shapes of cupolas and vaults. Several of these, sampled in three churches of Milan (S. Ambrogio, S. Lorenzo and Duomo) have been recently dated at the Archaeometry Laboratory of Milano Bicocca University. These architectural elements, differently shaped, styled and sampled from different structures, were all produced, according to thermoluminescence (TL), in the period 970–1080 AD.
:’)
Thanks!
Dang, they beat Leif Erikson over here!
Did you mean hot link or hot kink? Is this safe for work?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
