The Adriatic sea an endless treasure box for Archeologist and such alike especially the eastern Croatian coastline. There is an endless number of shipwrecks in the Adriatic dating from prehistory to modern times. In a few posts, I even mentioned a few like the SMS Szent Istvan near Premuda island and the US Airforce B-17 Bomber of the island of Vis. But why is it that the Adriatic is so rich in this kind of legacy. The answer is easy the Mediterranean as the name says was the center of the world before the Americas were discovered. The Croatian coastline was the safest way to northern Italy and an important trade route during the Roman period and the middle ages.
First, you need to understand that in those days you would travel for days, weeks, even months through Mediterranean waters from point A to B this leads to the second you need water and food for your journey. This is where the eastern Adriatic comes in handy, with more than 1000 island just like Greece on this route you could easily stop get water or food and continue. Furthermore, you could easily out wait for any storms or bad weather in one of the bays on one of the thousand islands.
The shipwreck I want to introduce you to lies near the island of Mljet in the south of Dalmatia. It is known as the St. Paul shipwreck it was discovered in 2006 by accident. The wreck was discovered by a diving club from Zagreb called Medveščak. Research on the wreck began in 2007 by the underwater archaeology department of the HRZ, from 2010 in association with the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Università Ca' Foscari Venezia. The research is financed by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Regione del Veneto of Italy.
The shipwreck was discovered on the south side of Mljet island around 100 meters of the coast on the seafloor near the island Preć across from cape Dugi Rat. The wreck lies on the cascade floor at a depth from 35 to 50 meters and the remains of the ship are spread over an area of 30 square meters. A huge amount of artifacts were discovered. The research shows that it is probably a Venetian trading vessel returning from the eastern Mediterranean. The ship was caught in a storm and run aground on St. Paul shallows. From the cargo and artifacts, the ship could be dated in 16th century time period.
Large parts of the ships hull were discovered and the wooden remains were preserved and left underwater. Among others, a great deal of the cargo and ship equipment was discovered on sight lying on the seafloor. Like ceramic and glassware for import and the kitchenware of the ship's galley. Personal objects of the crew and the ships cash box. Every ship of that time had a cash box filled with various coins so that they could pay for port fees on their travels. A remarkable find is the ships bronze cannons and two types of ammunition made out of stone and iron.
A total number of 8 bronze cannons were found on the seafloor, two different types 7even of the cannons have the loading systems from the back and one of the cannons are loaded from the front. The seven cannons with backloading system are furthermore distinct in two types. Two of the seven are known as Pedriera and the rest are known as Moschetto. The cannons are cast from an alloy of bronze and iron. All the canons with a backloading system used stone spheres as ammunition, stone spheres are more expensive and harder to produce. The one canon with front loading system is known as Esmeril and this one used iron spheres as ammunition.
Among other finds is the ships bell discovered on a depth of 43 meters during the campaign of 2010. The bell is of Venetian origin with the inscription MDLXVII which stands for 1567 probably the year the ship was launched. The bell is an important artifact and can tell a lot about the ship like the year, name, and where it was cast.
All of the photos were taken from the book Sveti Pavao Shipwreck: A 16th Century Venetian Merchantman from Mljet
And this will be all for part one in my next post about St. Paul shipwreck I will show you the rest of what was found on the seafloor.
If you have any questions please let me know in the comments below and don't forget to resteem :)
Bibliography
- Miholjek I., 2009., Novovjekovni brodolom kod pličine sv. Pavao pokraj otoka Mljeta, Jurišićev zbornik, Zagreb.
- Pešić M., Keramički materijal iz Iznika i ostalih orijentalnih radionica s lokaliteta pličina Sv. Pavao pored otoka Mljeta, Juišićev zbornik, Zagreb.
- Milošević B., Topić N., 2010., Dubrovački nalazi keramike iz Iznika, Starohrvatska prosvjeta III. sv. 37,Zagreb.
- Mihajlović I., 2009., Preliminarna analiza topova broj 2. i 6. s novovjekovnog brodoloma kod pličine Sv. Pavao pored Mljeta, Jurišićev zbornik Zagreb.
- Mihajlović I., Miholjek I., Pešić M., 2012., A 16th -Century Wreck Found near the Island of Mljet, Croatia, Between Continents Proceedings of the Twelfth Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Istanbul.
- Miholjek I., Zmaić V., 2013., Recent underwater archaeological research off the Croatian coast, SOMA 2011 Proceedings of 14th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Oxford.
- Beltrame C., Gelichi S., Miholjek I., 2014., Sveti Pavao Shipwreck: A 16th Century Venetian Merchantman from Mljet, Croatia, Oxford.
- Bezak J., 2014., Metal finds, Sveti Pavao Shipwreck: A 16th Century Venetian Merchantman from Mljet, Croatia, Oxford.
Underwater archaeologist - my dream job. Besides 1000 of wreckage from history near the Croatian coast, we have sunken a number of ships for diving purposes in recent times, like ship VIS or ship MARINERO
HEHEHE Yes, yes there is a lot going on for divers in Croatia :-) I am glad you like the post there will be a part 2 in a few days :-)
It's a great job to discover the mystery of the ocean! But I don't know swimming haha
Yes, it is, extremely fun I must say :-) you don't know how to swim?
This was a great post! Lots of really good information. I am a big fan of Clive Cussler, so this kind of stuff fascinates me. Thanks for the awesome post!
Thank you for the resteem, I am glad you liked my post it gives me motivation and maybe i will write a few more posts about underwater archaeology in Croata.
Very cool. I will definitely check them out if you do.
Great! I love watching any show I can about underwater discoveries. I am not sure if I will ever dive, but I love the stories from those that do. Be well!
Hehehe nice to here, thank you for reading my post :)
I have a friend who likes to dive for sunken artifacts, mostly in lakes and rivers. I also used to know an elderly gentleman that was in his 80s the dove in Lake Erie for artifacts. He had an anchor with the chain in his front yard the he retrieved. Each chain link was 18". Very cool .
Huge thing that anchor, here in Croatia it is a little bit difficult to retrieve such things. Technically it all belongs to the state and if you take it out it is treated like theft the fines are huge :-) I think it is easier in north America.
Amazing shore with amazing histories. Great text and illustrations. It is clear that you did a lot of research and invested significant time into this article. Excellent work, keep it that way!
I will try to keep it up :) thanks for the kind words.
A nice post, I sometimes go "treasure hunting" with a metal detector but would love to take that to the sea, or to be more specific I would like to find out what s around the city of Zadar.
Because every few months they find something. :)
HEHEH watch out with metal-detecting the fines are high. Split and the surroundings are the richest in Dalmatia you just need to know where to look. They find stuff in Zadar because there are looking, sometimes there is some shady business involved ;)
Not if you have a permit to dig, which is much easier to get than you think. But thanks for the advice, I'll stick to that. :)
Permit to dig nice :-)
Cool post. I've wondered sometimes what might be lost/hidden at the bottom of the sea...especially the deepest parts of the ocean where man has yet to explore. I like the data you provided too. Nice job!
The Seas still hold the biggest secrets of all, who knows whats down there and what can be found down there. I glad you liked my post.
I traveled by ship to Dubrovnik once. I had no idea how much was going on below the ship. fascinating discoveries.
@Lahvista
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Looking only through the bibliography shows your dedication and effort you made for making this post, BTW great one!
Yes, it took some time to get through all but I think it came out well :) and thank you.
I've always been fascinated to shipwrecks and the treasures that lie below the water. Trillions of dollars in lost treasure are down there just waiting to be discovered, would love to go looking for some in the future
Yes it is unknown how many wrecks lie on the seafloor, but one is for sure if archaeology thought me one thing only a fraction holds riches of gold and silver :-)
Amazing post!
thank you very much
I always wanted to try scuba diving, seeing some of these photos makes me want to do it even more :) I did not know about that shipwreck near Mljet, thank you for being my teacher of the day hihihi. Good job with this one, you are setting the bar pretty high for the history bloggers.
You should go for it maybe you will discover a new shipwreck :-) Thank you for the kind words about my writing :)
Thank you @shaka I noticed your contribution to my post and it is almost half of the entire thing :) It is a huge help for me. Vielen dank nochmals