Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm depleted druk reboarding, and I
Speaker 1: really like shipwrecks. I don't know if I mentioned this
Speaker 1: to you before. I have not. I know I mentioned
Speaker 1: it at Dragon Con and people kind of laughed because
Speaker 1: it's a weird thing to say that you really like.
Speaker 1: But they're just so interesting. I mean, there's so much
Speaker 1: to discover. They are fascinating. I mean window into the past,
Speaker 1: and things are preserved that might not be otherwise, things
Speaker 1: that definitely would not have made it if they had
Speaker 1: been above the surface this whole time. So people like
Speaker 1: me who really like shipwrecks got pretty excited back in
Speaker 1: the summer of two thousand nine when there was all
Speaker 1: this news about archaeologists finding the untouched remains of five
Speaker 1: Roman ships, and then there was a PBS show Secrets
Speaker 1: of the Dead recently profiling this expedition, So, I mean,
Speaker 1: pretty interesting stuff. Five untouched remain definitely back in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine, the lead archaeologist on this expedition, Timmy Gambon.
Speaker 1: He described the area as a graveyard of ships, which
Speaker 1: sounds very menacing, spooky. Yeah. Yeah, so it makes us
Speaker 1: wonder what is in these ships and where were they going,
Speaker 1: why did they all wreck so close together, and why
Speaker 1: did they think in the first place. These are some
Speaker 1: of the questions, some of the many questions we will
Speaker 1: be answering in today's podcast. Yep, But this whole thing
Speaker 1: started in two thousand eight, right, Yeah, the news broken
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, but the whole research project really started
Speaker 1: in two thousand eight. Yep. At that time, a group
Speaker 1: of marine archaeologists and ocean scientists that make up the
Speaker 1: Aurora Trust, they began a survey of the area around
Speaker 1: vent To Tene and the Tyrannean Sea off of Naples. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then to TenneT is a pretty interesting island itself.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's definitely worth discussing its history a little
Speaker 1: bit before we get into the shipwrecks. But it's this
Speaker 1: volcanic tiny island and today it's a tourist spot. I
Speaker 1: sent to Bilina a picture. It looked pretty picture fu Um.
Speaker 1: It only has five permanent residents. But back in ancient
Speaker 1: Roman times it was this grand Emperor's retreat and it
Speaker 1: was called Pantataria, and it also conveniently was a pretty
Speaker 1: nice place to exile nobles and imperial family members. But
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about that on a later podcast,
Speaker 1: so listen up. Then, So Augustus he transformed to this island.
Speaker 1: He built a villa in a complex system of cisterns
Speaker 1: there to collect rainwater since there were no natural springs
Speaker 1: to get water from. And more importantly, he had this
Speaker 1: harbor built basically dug out of the rock instead of
Speaker 1: building out of sea walls, and somehow it all still worked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty amazing to me. Um, But the island didn't
Speaker 1: remain this bustling, uh stop on trade routes for that long.
Speaker 1: The emperors eventually abandoned it and hermits were the only
Speaker 1: people who remained. And eventually it became a pirate's den
Speaker 1: because it was convenient enough to the mainland that you
Speaker 1: could go raid um, raid other ships, raid port towns,
Speaker 1: and then come back to your den with all your loot.
Speaker 1: And by the eighteenth century, the Bourbon kings decided that
Speaker 1: they wanted to start redeveloping the area a little bit,
Speaker 1: redeveloping then to Tenne, and partly that was to support
Speaker 1: this prison that they had built on an even tinier
Speaker 1: island that's right next to vent to Tenney Santo Stefano.
Speaker 1: And interesting, this, this whole island's history is just so weird.
Speaker 1: But this Tinier island is where Mussolini kept a lot
Speaker 1: of his political prisoners, so this has always been a
Speaker 1: good spot for exiling people you never want to hear
Speaker 1: from again. Pretty grim, sort of eerie place. So there
Speaker 1: are basically two takeaways here. Vent Atenne was remote enough
Speaker 1: to be perfect retreat for a perfect prison depending on
Speaker 1: who you are, depending on who you are and who
Speaker 1: you're dealing with. And it's also convenient enough to be
Speaker 1: a halfway point, a kind of rest stop or a
Speaker 1: layer when traveling through the often treacherous and bustling Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: Whether you're a Roman merchant or a Barbary pirate, it's
Speaker 1: a good place to stop. So due to this geographical
Speaker 1: importance and um it's proximity to all these ancient shipping
Speaker 1: lines that are of course racing back and forth across
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean, it makes sense that there would have been
Speaker 1: a few shipwrecks in the area. It would be the
Speaker 1: last port of call for more than one ship but
Speaker 1: a graveyard. I think that was a little bit of
Speaker 1: a surprise. But in two thousand eight, the Aurora Trust
Speaker 1: started to survey the seabed around vent Atenna and Santa
Speaker 1: Santo Stefano and they use their client system side skin sonars.
Speaker 1: So cool to me, and I mean it is. I
Speaker 1: just imagine it's so neat and clean on paper. But
Speaker 1: they essentially established a grid surrounding the island, like a
Speaker 1: triangular grid, and then trailed the sonar behind a boat
Speaker 1: to make sure that they got an absolutely complete picture
Speaker 1: of the sea bed. It is really cool. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: were basically creating underwater map so they could check for
Speaker 1: any abnormalities and that's what they call them, to abnormalities.
Speaker 1: So it could be anything from an ancient shipwreck or
Speaker 1: presumably just some junk on the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 1: I guess it depends on when it's from whether you
Speaker 1: consider it junk or something worth checking out. Um. And
Speaker 1: it's a surprisingly fruitful mapping effort. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: they thought they would find something, but um, they find
Speaker 1: quite a lot. They find piles of what looked like
Speaker 1: in four I, which are ancient Roman shipping vessels and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk a little bit more about them
Speaker 1: later because they're pretty interesting. And a few other just
Speaker 1: abnormal blips on the c floor maybe Rex, maybe not,
Speaker 1: just things worth checking out later. And then this isn't
Speaker 1: terribly related to this episode, but they find the wreck
Speaker 1: of a famous sunken ship from World War Two. Um,
Speaker 1: but there's more work to be done, yea. The sonar
Speaker 1: isn't quite gonna cut it, So the team plans to
Speaker 1: to return to the area in the summer of two
Speaker 1: thousand nine for a closer look at things. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: they come back in two thousand nine. The two thousand
Speaker 1: eight scan head showed three potential ancient shipwrecks, and in
Speaker 1: two thousand nine they extend the range of that scan
Speaker 1: a little bit more and they find two more wrecks
Speaker 1: that they decide are definitely worth checking out with. There
Speaker 1: are the camera because sonar just lets you know there's
Speaker 1: an abnormality, it doesn't really let you know exactly what
Speaker 1: it is. So we're gonna give you a rundown a profile,
Speaker 1: if you will. Of these five ancient recks they find. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the first one is well preserved and it's from the
Speaker 1: first century a d. It's filled with cargo of Spanish
Speaker 1: amphoe from Batica. And yeah, the this is probably the
Speaker 1: best time to tell you what the and for I
Speaker 1: want to know. Um, if you've ever seen just like
Speaker 1: a statue of a pedestal with this surn type of
Speaker 1: thing on top, very well might have been a dedication
Speaker 1: to an amphora or two mphor e the plural um.
Speaker 1: And they're these ancient Roman shipping containers. And usually they're
Speaker 1: really pointy on the bottom and they look um almost
Speaker 1: like if you've ever seen handmade lace. They look kind
Speaker 1: of like Bobbin's, those big wooden bobbins to compare it to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so they can't stand up on their own because
Speaker 1: they're pointy. But when you line them all up in
Speaker 1: a row, you can also stack them. The points fit
Speaker 1: in exactly um between the other ones, so you can
Speaker 1: a cargo hold of a ship to make the best
Speaker 1: available use of your space. And when they all fit
Speaker 1: together like that, they kind of form just a lock
Speaker 1: like a puzzle. I'll put together. Yep. And these M
Speaker 1: four I would have held garum right, which is a
Speaker 1: type of fermented fish sauce that you could literally douse
Speaker 1: on any meal yeah, I think the Romans were pretty
Speaker 1: fond of it too, which I know, fermented fish sauce
Speaker 1: sounds like kind of something that wouldn't be very good,
Speaker 1: but I mean, if you've ever had Thai food, it's
Speaker 1: good as long as you balance it out with other things. Um. So.
Speaker 1: The second rack is also really well preserved. It also
Speaker 1: carries M. Four I. It's from the first century BC,
Speaker 1: so a bit older. And uh, these M four I
Speaker 1: carried wine from Campania. And you'll find a lot of
Speaker 1: these ships carried wine. It just gives you a little
Speaker 1: taste of how how important the trade in wine was
Speaker 1: in the Roman Empire. The third wreck is from the
Speaker 1: first century a D. And it broke into two at
Speaker 1: some point, so it may have had a more violent
Speaker 1: wreck than some of the other ships that were involved. Here.
Speaker 1: They carried more taria, which is basically the mortar part
Speaker 1: of a mortar, and pestle and Italian wine am for
Speaker 1: I from Campania. Again they've gotta have their their wine.
Speaker 1: The fourth reck is from the first century a D.
Speaker 1: And it's not quite as well preserved, but in some
Speaker 1: ways it has the most interesting cargo. So it's got
Speaker 1: those wine and four I again but it also has
Speaker 1: glass frit which I had to look up what this
Speaker 1: was UM from the Aurora Trust site, which actually I
Speaker 1: should mention this now you can find pictures of all
Speaker 1: of these wrecks at the site, should I definitely recommend.
Speaker 1: But you can use this glass to make real glass
Speaker 1: like what you would think of, or to make pigments
Speaker 1: or just all sorts of things. And the ship also
Speaker 1: carried metal bars which may have been UM destined to
Speaker 1: be part of some step at you or some kind
Speaker 1: of weapons. And then it carried these huge, incredibly heavy
Speaker 1: metal cylinders and the archaeologist still aren't quite sure what
Speaker 1: those may have been used for. The fifth reck was
Speaker 1: from a little bit later. It was from the fifth
Speaker 1: century a d. And it carried more of this fish
Speaker 1: sauce and um, and the fish slauce was in North
Speaker 1: African MP. I. Yeah, so again kind of showing how
Speaker 1: why this trading range was UM. But it would be
Speaker 1: really bad to lose your shipment of garam. I mean
Speaker 1: you might think that the wine would be the most
Speaker 1: precious shipment. We mentioned here that garam, if it was
Speaker 1: high quality, garam could go for the Roman equivalent of
Speaker 1: one dollars for two pints, so having a whole ship
Speaker 1: of it go down would be pretty bad news. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: So the Aurora Trust decided that the r o V
Speaker 1: pictures were nice, you know, they kind of give them
Speaker 1: a good idea of what's on there, but the human
Speaker 1: eye is better, and so they picked a few sites
Speaker 1: to send divers to, just three of them. And the
Speaker 1: issue here is that the sites are really really deep,
Speaker 1: and they're deeper than three feet and that's part of
Speaker 1: the reason why these wrecks are still preserved, because if
Speaker 1: they were shallower depths, recreational divers would have found them
Speaker 1: long ago and presumably pilfered them mess them up. Um.
Speaker 1: It's because they're out of range for most fos that
Speaker 1: they're still so pristine. Yep. Even the research divers could
Speaker 1: only spend a few minutes down there before they had
Speaker 1: to start the lengthy decompression process and come back up.
Speaker 1: So they pick their most highly trained divers to go
Speaker 1: on these expeditions, and they send them in not just
Speaker 1: to kind of look at what's there, but also to
Speaker 1: bring stuff back up whatever they can bring with them
Speaker 1: to analyze later. Yeah, hopefully get some museum specimens out
Speaker 1: of it. Um. So at the second wreck, which is
Speaker 1: that one from the first century BC, the divers find
Speaker 1: these stacks of perfect and for it. I mean, it
Speaker 1: looks like the day they were loaded. And of course
Speaker 1: these don't look like shipwrecks that I mean you probably
Speaker 1: you're probably used to pictures of the Titanic or something
Speaker 1: like that, where clearly there is a ship underwater, of course,
Speaker 1: being two thousand years old, in this case more than
Speaker 1: two thousand years old. The ship is gone, all the
Speaker 1: wooden parts are gone. It's just the cargo that remains. Um.
Speaker 1: But they're able to bring up one and Phora from
Speaker 1: that wreck. And uh, if you check out the Secrets
Speaker 1: of the Dead video on this one, it's it's funny.
Speaker 1: They bring it up and put it into a little
Speaker 1: on deck pool to you know, keep it. It's been
Speaker 1: underwater for so many years. If it's up in the air,
Speaker 1: it's not going to weather well. Um. And then they
Speaker 1: use a database to help them match the shape of
Speaker 1: it to a like Emphora from the same period. It
Speaker 1: kind reminded me of C. S I or bones or
Speaker 1: something for and for because it's just blipping past all
Speaker 1: the silhouettes until finally they have a match which helps
Speaker 1: identify the age, which is the first century BC, and
Speaker 1: the contents which we're probably wine and for forensics exactly.
Speaker 1: So then the divers are able to also obtain samples
Speaker 1: from rexite number three and that one was the one
Speaker 1: that was split in half. From there they can carry
Speaker 1: off four mortaria and these are all identical. So it's
Speaker 1: like an example of Roman mass production. Yeah, everybody had
Speaker 1: to get their mortaria and France or Spain or wherever
Speaker 1: they were because it was the best Roman tool available.
Speaker 1: And from the fourth sight, the one that has that
Speaker 1: mysterious metal cargo there, unfortunately not able to bring any
Speaker 1: samples to the surface, but they take a lot of
Speaker 1: photos um. That one is deeper than the others even
Speaker 1: it's at four hundred and eighty feet UM. So that's
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, definitely accomplishing a few more goals with
Speaker 1: this project. And then in two thousand and ten, just
Speaker 1: this past summer, they went back for another look. Yeah. Again,
Speaker 1: they extend the scan range and they sent down the
Speaker 1: r o V for more Hira's images of the area,
Speaker 1: and they were focusing mainly on places that didn't get
Speaker 1: documented in two thousand nine, and they also recover another amphora. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think a National geographic crew may have accompanied
Speaker 1: them that year. So maybe we'll get another documentary with
Speaker 1: cool underwater photography next year. Um. But okay, we still
Speaker 1: have our our questions that we raised in the introduction,
Speaker 1: which was why is this a graveyard? Why are there
Speaker 1: so many ships here? And there are a few reasons why,
Speaker 1: and one of them is just volume. I mean, Rome
Speaker 1: is a huge global exporter and importer during this time,
Speaker 1: and that's at the on the land by all the
Speaker 1: roads they build to you know, to transport merchants and
Speaker 1: goods and the army of course, um, but there were
Speaker 1: also lots of shipping lines and it was very important
Speaker 1: for the Empire for these shipping lines to be relatively safe,
Speaker 1: as safe as they could be, so that merchants could
Speaker 1: trade goods with a certain amount of confidence. And they
Speaker 1: just criss crossed across the Mediterranean between Greece and North
Speaker 1: Africa and France and Spain. They go across the Black
Speaker 1: Sea between the Channel you know, in England and France,
Speaker 1: so I mean just everywhere you can imagine there are
Speaker 1: Roman ships trading goods, high traffic area, right, So do
Speaker 1: another reason behind this was that due to volume and markup,
Speaker 1: the Empire could afford to lose the ship or two
Speaker 1: now and then yeah, definitely, I mean it's kind of
Speaker 1: sad but true, yep, especially since some things like wine,
Speaker 1: which Rome had a lock on. I mean, we talked
Speaker 1: about all the wine that we saw, but they were
Speaker 1: the ones mainly response well for distributing this. Provinces like
Speaker 1: Spain and France that we're perfectly capable of growing their
Speaker 1: own and making their own line had to buy from
Speaker 1: Roman merchants out the mark of course, oh of course,
Speaker 1: and in some other cases items were mass produced on
Speaker 1: the cheap and exported. So yeah, if you want to
Speaker 1: do is the Romans do have to buy now you
Speaker 1: have to pay a little bit. And then, I mean
Speaker 1: the other main reason aside from volume here is location.
Speaker 1: So Ventatenne, as we mentioned, is a really great stopping point.
Speaker 1: It's very convenient and it has that nice harbor that
Speaker 1: was built by Augustus and so it makes a nice
Speaker 1: place for an outbound ship to rest for a day,
Speaker 1: to get new supplies and to take shelter from bad weather.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, what you know, the same reasons that make
Speaker 1: it such a convenient rest stop also make it potentially
Speaker 1: very dangerous. And that's because despite that nice sloping harbor,
Speaker 1: most of the island has these very steep sea walls,
Speaker 1: high rock cliffs, And if you're in a storm and
Speaker 1: it hits when you're pretty near the island, you're not
Speaker 1: just going to be getting the waves from the wind
Speaker 1: and the storm. You're gonna be getting the waves that
Speaker 1: are bouncing off of the rock walls, and they're pitching
Speaker 1: you back and forth. So this could basically toss the
Speaker 1: ship around. And then the stacked and four eye that
Speaker 1: they found that could have shifted, and if those shift,
Speaker 1: then the ship kind of lists to one side. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the the and four I will shift, and a few
Speaker 1: that are supporting the way it'll start to break. And
Speaker 1: then suddenly you're nice interlocking puzzle that fits the hold
Speaker 1: so perfectly doesn't fit right anymore, and they all kind
Speaker 1: of lean to one side. And with a listing ship,
Speaker 1: it's pretty easy for a wave to take it down.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's notable that the majority of these wrecks
Speaker 1: look like they sung intact. Yeah, most of the M
Speaker 1: four I were still intact, right, Yeah, And and they're
Speaker 1: just in a in a ship shape. Sorry she used
Speaker 1: out an way that I mean they're They don't look
Speaker 1: like they were torn to pieces and broken up on
Speaker 1: the waves. They look like they just souncle all of
Speaker 1: a sudden. So it's still a bit of a mystery too.
Speaker 1: So I guess that's all we know from now on
Speaker 1: these five room and shipwrecks, although it definitely looks like
Speaker 1: we'll be finding out more in the near future, hopefully
Speaker 1: so there may be another podcast on a different aspect
Speaker 1: of this soon. Perfect Fall Up, And we actually do
Speaker 1: have another podcast coming now. As we mentioned this one
Speaker 1: is going to be more focused on Bent to Chenne
Speaker 1: in that exiled prisoner reputation that it has um But
Speaker 1: first we're gonna do some listener mail. So this email
Speaker 1: is from Hannah and she was writing in response to
Speaker 1: an episode Candice and I recorded a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: on five famous historical weddings, and Kid and I were
Speaker 1: a little skeptical of this rumor that wild horses on
Speaker 1: Cumberland Island came up to Caroline Bassette Kennedy and nibbled
Speaker 1: on her Lily of the Valley bouquet. We were just
Speaker 1: like we've both been to Cumberland, and know that those
Speaker 1: horses are very much wild. I've never seen one come
Speaker 1: up to a person and snack on. Yeah, and so,
Speaker 1: Hannah wrote, You're absolutely right in your skepticism. It's very
Speaker 1: unlikely that a wild horse would approach her, and in
Speaker 1: the off chance that it did, it certainly wouldn't chomp
Speaker 1: on her bouquet. Like fox glove, lily of the Valley
Speaker 1: contains opponents and other toxic substances. These toxins are there
Speaker 1: to discourage animals like horses from grazing on the sweet
Speaker 1: smelling plant. All part of the Lily of the valley
Speaker 1: plant are quite poisonous and should be handled with care.
Speaker 1: Wild horses may nibble on many things, but they certainly
Speaker 1: won't dine on the lily of the valley. Let's hope,
Speaker 1: for the horse of sake, that this story, while sweet,
Speaker 1: is just a rumor. So what a cute letter. It's
Speaker 1: really cute, and I I think it's good to know.
Speaker 1: I meanly the best formative for poisonous. It seems like
Speaker 1: maybe not the best flower to put in your bouquet.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't not if you have animals
Speaker 1: at your wedding, for having a barn yard themed wedding
Speaker 1: boyd Lily the Valley. Um So, I guess that's our
Speaker 1: advice for the day. And if you have any more
Speaker 1: I don't know stories from shipwrecks to horses, feel free
Speaker 1: to email us where at History podcast at how stuff Works.
Speaker 1: We also have a Twitter account at Miston History and
Speaker 1: a Facebook fan page. And if you want to learn
Speaker 1: a little more about underwater photography, we have an article
Speaker 1: called how underwater Photography Works. You can search for it
Speaker 1: by typing in underwater photography on our homepage at www
Speaker 1: dot how stuff works dot com. For more on this
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
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