1 April 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Divers Discover 2,500-Year-Old Shipwreck and anchors Off the Coast of Sicily

A shipwreck dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries BC was discovered in the waters of Santa Maria del Focallo near Ispica on the southern tip of the Italian island, along with ancient anchors made of stone and iron.

This shipwreck discovered off the coast of Sicily could offer new insights into ancient Greece, which colonized the Mediterranean island for hundreds of years.

Archaeologists discovered the ship buried under 20 feet of sand and rock off the southern tip of Sicily. The ancient wreck was not alone in its discovery. Just a few feet away, the team found two iron inverted “T” anchors, likely from the seventh century A.D., as well as four stone anchors that are thought to be from the prehistoric era. One of these stone anchors was broken and may have originally featured two wooden flukes designed to help secure it to the seafloor.

According to a translated statement from the Sicilian Region’s Superintendent of the Sea, these findings shed light on the region’s rich maritime history.

When archaeologists unearthed the sunken ship, they discovered a hull built using an “on-the-shell” construction technique, a simplistic early shipbuilding method often traced to populations around the Mediterranean. The “on-shell technique” is characterized by planking connected at the joints, allowing the ship’s hull to function in a self-supporting manner.

Over the centuries, mollusks have eaten away at the ship's hull, which was constructed using the "on the shell" technique. Credit: University of Udine
Over the centuries, mollusks have eaten away at the ship’s hull, which was constructed using the “on the shell” technique. Credit: University of Udine

Also, archaeologists created a three-dimensional model of the shipwreck and collected samples from the artifacts for analysis, hoping to understand more about the materials that compose them.

“The general condition of the hull, which has long been the object of attack by mollusks that feed on wood, is in fact extremely delicate and requires not only expertise, but also a lot of caution,” Massimo Capulli, professor of underwater and naval archaeology at the University of Udine, said in a translated statement from the university.

“This discovery represents an extraordinary contribution to the knowledge of the maritime history of Sicily and the Mediterranean and highlights once again the central role of the Island in the traffic and cultural exchanges of antiquity,” said Francesco Paolo Scarpinato, Sicily’s regional councilor for cultural heritage and Sicilian identity, in a statement on the shipwreck. “The wreck, dating back to a crucial period for the transition between archaic and classical Greece, is a precious piece of the submerged Sicilian cultural heritage.”

Professor Massimo Capulli, added in a separate statement released by the university that studying the wreck may help illuminate how trade happened between ancient Greeks and Carthaginians, two groups that thousands of years ago fought for control of the seas around present-day Sicily.  We are in fact faced with material evidence of the traffic and trade of a very ancient era.”

Further exploration of the wreck may provide valuable insights into the maritime knowledge of the era. This underwater investigation is part of the Kaukana Project, an initiative dedicated to researching the cultural heritage hidden beneath the waters off the coast of Sicily, which has been underway since 2017.

University of Udine

Soprintendenza del Mare

Cover Image Credit: Soprintendenza del Mare

Related Articles

A First in Denmark: Rare 4th Century Roman Helmet and Chainmail Found

3 February 2025

3 February 2025

Archaeologists have recently unearthed a massive stockpile of weapons near Hedensted, Denmark, buried 1,500 years ago by an ancient chief....

Britain’s first Roman funerary bed is discovered in central London after 2,000 years

7 February 2024

7 February 2024

Archaeologists excavating a construction site in London have unearthed the first Roman “flat-packed” funerary furniture – a fully intact Roman...

What If Ancient Statues Smelled Wonderful? The Surprising Secrets of Greco-Roman Sculptures

16 March 2025

16 March 2025

A new study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology has shed light on an often-overlooked aspect of ancient Greek...

Mass graves of Crusaders killed in the 13th century have been discovered in Lebanon

17 September 2021

17 September 2021

From 1096 to 1291, waves of Europeans took up arms and marched into the Middle East. They hope to “take...

Scientists unlock the ‘Cosmos’ on the Antikythera Mechanism

13 March 2021

13 March 2021

Scientists may have finally made a complete digital model of the 2000-year-old Cosmos panel of a mechanical device called the...

Oil drilling uncovers a 2,000-year-old cemetery with giant Urn-like tombs in Southwest Iran

16 July 2022

16 July 2022

An ancient cemetery with urn-like tombs was discovered in Ahvaz, the capital city of Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. The...

Zeugma of the Black Sea to be will Restore

8 February 2021

8 February 2021

Hadrianaupolis Antique City is located 3 km west of Eskiyapar district of Karabük. This ancient city has been known as...

A unique gold brooch talisman with inscriptions in Latin and Hebrew was found in the UK

19 February 2022

19 February 2022

A Medieval gold annular brooch with prayerful inscriptions has been discovered in the parish of Manningford in Wiltshire, in the...

A princely tomb discovered in the infrastructure project of the A7 Ploieşti-Buzău highway in Romania

20 December 2022

20 December 2022

An impressive archaeological discovery took place on the Ploiești-Buzău section of the Moldova Highway. The excavations uncovered a princely tomb,...

A 12.000 -year-old temple was found during excavations in Boncuklu Tarla in southeastern Turkey

21 October 2021

21 October 2021

A temple thought to be 12 thousand years old was unearthed in Boncuklu Tarla in the Ilısu Neighborhood of Dargeçit...

Huge funerary building and Fayoum portraits discovered in Egypt Fayoum

4 December 2022

4 December 2022

The Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Gerza archaeological site in Fayoum revealed a huge funerary building from the Ptolemaic...

1000-Year-Old Tomb Found in Perre Ancient City in southeast Turkey

1 July 2021

1 July 2021

A 1,000-year-old tomb was unearthed in the ancient city of Perre in Adiyaman province. Perre is one of the five...

Dartmoor mining discovery rewrites more than 1,000 years of history

18 July 2021

18 July 2021

A new discovery at a Dartmoor mine in England dates human activity there back potentially by more than 1,000 years....

Australia’s 1,400-year-old Mysterious Earth Rings: Evidence of Millennia of Human Effort, Not Natural Formation

21 January 2025

21 January 2025

A chain of mysterious earth rings in the Sunbury hills at the fringe of Melbourne, in Australia have been found...

The Latest Surprises Revealed by Investigations Inside the Tomb of Cerberus in Giugliano

24 July 2024

24 July 2024

The latest surprise revealed by investigations at the Tomb of Cerberus in Giugliano: The remains of a corpse covered with...