Deepwater Submarine Recovers Roman Battering Ram From Ancient Battle

An Italian taste practice outfit has announced the betterment of a Roman battering ram from the bottommost of the Mediterranean Sea.

The ram, oregon rostrum, made up the prow of a Roman warship. It was utilized successful the Battle of the Aegates, the squad stated, a naval conflict betwixt Rome and Carthage that marked the extremity of the archetypal Punic War successful 241 BCE, aft 23 years of struggle betwixt the 2 empires.

The find of the rostrum, announced by Sicily’s Department of Cultural Heritage’s Superintendence of the Sea, was recovered by divers with the Society for the Documentation of Submerged Sites. The betterment squad besides utilized the probe vas Hercules to assistance successful the rostrum’s recognition and recovery.

The dive squad recovered the rostrum connected the seabed astatine a extent of astir 262 feet (80 meters). The artifact was recovered from a agelong of the Mediterranean betwixt Levanzo and Favignana, tiny islands conscionable westbound of Sicily, wherever archaeological surveys person been conducted implicit the past 20 years. According to LiveScience, the ram is present connected onshore successful Favignana, and archetypal survey of the artifact has revealed an ornamental alleviation of a helmet and feathers.

Since the aboriginal 2000s, 27 rostra person been found, according to the team’s societal media post. The rostra were utilized for—you guessed it—ramming force ships, with the extremity of punching holes successful them, yet sinking them. Other past wartime artifacts person besides been identified successful the team’s surveys, including 30 Roman helmets, 2 swords, and a comparatively communal find successful Mediterranean archaeology, plenty of amphorae.

The Mediterranean Sea adjacent Sicily and Tunisia was a fashionable maritime corridor during the Roman Empire—or astatine slightest it seems truthful based connected caller archaeological findings. Last year, a UNESCO-coordinated ngo recovered 3 shipwrecks disconnected the treacherous Keith Reef betwixt Sicily and Tunisia, 1 of which was dated to betwixt 200 BCE and 100 BCE. That probe squad besides studied 3 Roman wrecks disconnected the Italian coast, 2 of which were 1st-century merchant vessels and 1 of which dated to the 1st-century BCE.

The precocious recovered rostrum is older than those wrecks, however, and is simply a remarkably vivid model into an past battle, and the fierce naval conflicts that shaped the past world. The Battle of the Aegates saw astir of the Carthaginian fleet sunk oregon captured, and resulted successful Roman supremacy connected the Mediterranean. All told, determination were 3 Punic Wars betwixt Carthage and Rome, which resulted successful the demolition of Carthage.