 The 30-yard long wreck dates to the 1st century BC and the cargo is believed to have been the produce of southern Albanian vineyards en route to western European markets, including France.
The statement from the underwater mission adds that the find was made 40 m deep near the port city of Vlora, 150 kms southwest of the capital, Tirana, early this month.
The foundation, in cooperation with Albanian archeologists, has been surveying a swath of Albania’s previously unexplored coastal waters for the past five years. So far, experts have located 20 shipwrecks, including several relatively modern ones.
Unfortunately, the 300 wine amphoras being carried by the Roman ship were empty and only suggest that Albania was in fact producing wines at least 2100 years ago and the wreck suggests that the ship was perhaps in the flourishing business of wine transportation.
Team members retrieved one amphora for examination, before restoring it to the wreck. The site, the precise location of which is being kept secret, will be left unexplored until the Albanian archaeological service is in a position to do so.
The find follows last year’s discovery of two shipwreck sites in European waters which threw up relics of the continent’s winemaking past. |