Mahdia: Mahdia

Shipwreck

Coordinates: None given.

Wreckage: 90 - 60 BC (first half of C1st BC)

Remains include the keel (elm) from which the ship can be judged to have been 26m. Also remains of the garboard strake which was double planked with fabric between the two layers and lead-sheathed.

Seventy Attic marble columns, weighing about 205 tonnes, varying in size from 1.85m to 4.4m. Also bases, capitals and basins. Total weight probably about 250 tonnes. Seven life-sized marble heads and busts among them the bust of Aphrodite, that had already been used as tondi. At least four large craters decorated with reliefs showing Dionysiac processions. Bases, altars, fountain rims, small Doric capitals etc that had obviously furnished one or more sanctuaries. Two of the inscriptions refer to the sanctuary of the paraloi in the Piraeus.

Full-size and miniature bronze sculptures, including a statue of a winged youth (Eros?) and a herm of Dionysus with the signature of Boethus of Chalchedon, both of which show traces of having been removed from their marble bases; vases and candelabra, other decorative pieces. Bronze couches inscribed with Greek numbers, showing that the ship was carrying at least 22 of them.

Assorted amphorae from Italy, Spain and Tunisia; lead ingots stamped with Latin names originating from southern Spain; tiles, a mill-stone and pottery.