A new study and research mission has been launched for the preservation and enhancement of the wreck of the ‘Punic Ship,’ displayed at the ‘Baglio Anselmi’ Archaeological Museum in Marsala, located at Cape Boeo.
The exhibited wreck is the only existing specimen in the world of a Punic ship; it was discovered in 1971 on the shallow seabed off the coast of Marsala.
“Thanks to the support of the Honor Frost Foundation of London, the mission has involved naval archaeologists Pat Tanner (University of Southampton, Centre for Maritime Archaeology), specializing in 3D surveying and virtual reconstruction of ancient ships, and Toby Jones (Newport Museum and Art Gallery), formerly curator of the project on the 15th-century merchant ship found in the River Usk in Newport (Wales, 2002),” reads a statement released by the Lilibeo-Marsala Archaeological Park.
“Pat Tanner, as part of her project on ‘Archaeological Ship Deformation: the creation and analysis of digital engineering models of support structures’ (University of Swansea, Wales), together with university tutor Xiaojun Yin, has conducted a new laser scanner survey of the ship and the supporting structure to check for any changes or movements compared to the situation monitored in 2019,” the statement continues.
“Toby Jones has measured the moisture level of the Punic timbers and has installed a series of detectors in the ‘Honor Frost’ room, for the purpose of designing an air conditioning system suitable for the best preservation of the wreck discovered by the British mission led by Honor Frost (1971-1974), unique among Mediterranean wrecks for its technical characteristics and the presence of signs of Phoenician-Punic shipbuilding”.
The previous interventions for the preservation of the Punic ship
It is important to note that the design of some necessary conservation interventions began as early as 2018, with diagnostic analyses carried out by the Centre Camille Juillian – CNRS in Aix Marseille (directed by Giulia Boetto) and by the spin-off Arc-NucleArt in Grenoble.
In 2019, Pat Tanner conducted the 3D survey of the Punic ship; two years later, the International Conference on the wreck was organized, during which Pat Tanner showed that its support structure had undergone a “distortion” from the original axis corresponding to the sternpost.
In 2022, the first ’emergency’ conservation intervention took place, supported by the British Foundation, by the two naval archaeologists, Tanner and Jones, aimed at protecting the hull from direct contact with the metal structure supporting it, by inserting extremely thin sheets of inert polymeric material. At the same time, intervention was carried out on the wooden structure to correct the deformation of the planking at a crucial point of intersection with a frame.
Finally, between May and June 2022, the Italian translation of the “virtual dive” published on the Foundation’s website was completed.
In the highlighted photo: Punic ship exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Marsala – Author: Sarah C. Murray.