Hundreds of rare Roman pots discovered by accident off Italy's coast by British research ship

Daily Mail ^ | April 13th 2010 | Reporter

[SunkenCiv]

A British underwater research team has discovered hundreds of rare Roman pots by accident, while trawling the wreckages of ships on the sea bed. The team had been using remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to scour modern wrecks for radioactive materials. They were amazed to come across the remains of a Roman galley which sank off the coast of Italy thousands of years ago... The crew from energy company Hallin Marine International, based in Aberdeen, found a number of ancient pots lying in the mud 1,640ft below the waves... the crew worked around the clock for two days to bring them to the surface without damaging them... managed to recover five of the 2,000 year-old vessels intact... They were then handed over to an archaeology museum in the historic Graeco-Roman city of Paestum, in northern Italy.

[SunkenCiv]

One of the Roman pots that were found lying on the sea bed off the coast of Italy by a British research team. Experts believe they held oils

[SunkenCiv]

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[Red_Devil 232]

Hmmmmm .... so now amphorae are just called pots by the British media?

[afraidfortherepublic]

Nice.

[GeronL]

That is awesome.

None of them were plugged (they used wax for that?) or the plugs didn’t survive I guess?

[afraidfortherepublic]

In situ

[SunkenCiv]

It's amazing that, despite building a huge multi-ethnic empire and far-flung trade (Romans in Brazil During the Second or Third Century?), they never made a shipping pot that would stand on its base. ;')

[freedumb2003]

I was thinking Roman Pot like Josephus used in “History of the World Part I”

[Colonel Blimp]

Why can’t each news cycle have more stories like this?

As an old newspaperman of 25 years experience, I can tell you that a good story doesn’t have to be bad. In fact, I would say readers love anything with a high “gee whiz” factor.

Of course, when your president is a Kenyan usurper and your Congress is dominated by brain-dead 1960s leftovers, “gee whiz” is going to take a back seat to “aw s**t!”

[SunkenCiv]

They are forbidden from using the word “pot” for fear some wag will use the term to describe the Queen’s hat.

[Outlaw Woman]

You are so right

[Outlaw Woman]

Hi. What topics does the GGG thread cover?

[STD]

thats because they layed them on their sides.

[Fiddlstix]

Gods Graves Glyphs

[TChad]

Dear Daily Mail:

This is a pot:

This is pot:

This is an amphora:

[STD]

thats because they layed them on their sides.

[Mercat]

I thought it was because they used sand for ballast and stuck them down in the sand for stability.

[Red_Devil 232]

Or just stuck them in the dirt.

[TChad]

Let me try that again with a different image, which I hope is not blocked.

This is an amphora:

[SunkenCiv]

:’) The bottoms of the amphorae are believed to be pointy for a couple of reasons — one is, they were cheaper to manufacture (many of them only made one-way voyages, and that’s not even the ones that sank with the vessel), and the other reason is durability.