Roman battering ram found off Sicily
It’s a rostrum. The Romans used to affix them to the prow of their ship to batter the sides of enemy vessels.
This particular rostrum was found off the coast of Sicily and seems to have been used in the last naval battle of the First Punic War against Carthage. (The first one was the one without Hannibal and his elephants.)
The ram was attached to the bow of a ship that was used in a 241 B.C. skirmish called the Battle of the Egadi Islands, off a body of water that has been a shipping pathway dating back to the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans traveled the waterway on their way to and from North Africa, Royal said.
The Battle of Egadi Islands pitted 200 Roman ships against 100 Carthaginian ships. The battle was one of the last of the first Punic War and led to the Carthaginian’s surrender, Royal said.
I don’t know how the archaeologists made this determination, but it’s a majorly big deal to find a rostrum in the first place (only 4 others are known) and completely unique that it can be traced to a specific battle.
I pictured them shaped like rams heads, thanks to excessive consumption of Hollywood sword-and-sandal cinemascope epics, but instead they’re rather pointy and scary and eminently well-adapted to their function.
Great story!
Yup. And I didn’t even get into the interesting meta-narrative about private archaeological recovery companies versus national marketing.
Hey,
Great site!
I am actually part of the survey team that found this rostrum. I am interested in publishing a paper on the technical aspects of the survey (I am a surveyor, not archaeologist).
I have anecdotal evidence of another rostrum being found by fishermen in the area, but I can only find info on a find made by a dredging company.
Anyone have any more info?
I must say that the immense historical fabric behind this type of work has me hooked. The thrill of treasure hunting without the moral complications. Or the money
(Just kidding)
Oh wow, how exciting! I would love to hear about your experiences on the survey team. If you’re ever in the mood to write up an anecdote or two, or maybe a summary, I would be thrilled to bits to post it here.
I have also read that another rostrum was found by fishermen off the coast of Trapani, so basically the same area as the Egadi islands. It was recovered by the Carabinieri in 2004 and is now in the Pepoli museum.
Unfortunately the Pepoli has no website and I couldn’t find any more information about the Trapani rostrum. I wanted to include a picture of it just for comparison, but there was none to be found.
Lots of cool majolica and coral in that museum, though.