Posted on 08/14/2011 1:45:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Italian archaeologists have retrieved a sunken treasure of 3,422 ancient bronze coins in the small Sicilian island of Pantelleria, they announced today.
Discovered by chance during a survey to create an underwater archaeological itinerary,the coins have been dated between 264 and 241 BC.
At that time, Pantelleria, which lies about 70 miles southwest of Sicily, in the middle of the Sicily Strait, became a bone of contention between the Romans and Carthaginians.
Rome captured the small Mediterranean island in the First Punic War in 255 BC, but lost it a year later.
In 217 BC, in the Second Punic War, Rome finally regained the island, and even celebrated the event with commemorative coins and a holiday.
Lying at depth of about 68 feet, the coins most likely represent an episode of the Romans and Carthaginians struggle.
Amazingly, all 3,422 coins feature the same iconography.
On one side, they show Kore/Tanit, the ancient goddess of fertility, whom Carthaginians worshipped on the island around 550 BC.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
Punic coins retrieved from the Mediterranean sea near Pantelleria, Sicily. Photo: courtesy of Pantelleria Ricerche.
The coins were found in relatively low waters. Photo: courtesy of Pantelleria Ricerche.
All 3,422 coins feature the same iconography. Photo: courtesy of Pantelleria Ricerche.
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Putin?
Putin?
Very neat.
I got hooked the other night on a show called.. Treasure Hunter (I think). It was about a ship called the Odyssey, and they were finding old ship wrecks. They two episodes I watched were about the HMS Victory in the English Channel (2009).
It was pretty amazing the technology and everything. But at 1 am, I had to give up and go to bed. :-)
I’m getting a Chinese thing on that pic link.
Okay... now it’s there... I tried loading the graphic directly into a tab, waited a bit, got a map of the island — the place where Julia, daughter of Octavian, died in exile.
No, it’s me, Andropov.
There’s a current Bloomberg article (can’t use it on FR, copyright complaint) about new dives on the Mentor, which went down in 1802 carrying the so-called Elgin Marbles. All the stones were recovered shortly after the ship sank, but various people keep looking for more.
The money was to buy salt for the Romans to use in the Third Punic War.
“Here’s your frickin’ salt money!” [glug!]
The hand in the first photo is not Andropov’s or Putin’s, but definitely Khrushchev’s. If it wasn’t full of coins it would be holding a shoe.
In the underwater shot the coins seem in remarkably good condition without encrustation. Very cool find.
This really puts the currency in currents.
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