Promare

Underwater Archaeology in Croton

The city of Croton is located on the Ionian coast of modern Calabria, South Italy. Due to the presence of a harbor open to the East and to a rocky coastline full of small bays and wind-sheltered coves, Croton always played a crucial role for sailors headed to the Strait of Messina, and from there to Western Mediterranean. Croton's harbor is strategically located midway between Tarentum and the Strait of Messina, on a sea lane that has always been heavily-trafficked in antiquity, and south of the city the Ionian coastline of Calabria, which is flat and sandy from Tarentum all the way south, suddenly opens up in a series of three promontories (Capo Colonna, Capo Cimiti, Capo Rizzuto) and the small peninsula of Le Castella, creating a series of wind-sheltered bays and coves of crucial importance for sailing boats.

What appeared extremely interesting during preliminary research is the fact that the search area, in antiquity, seemed to have been even better suited to host sailors and their ships than currently is. Pliny the Elder described indeed a small archipelago of five islands that have disappeared from sight, giving both their distance of 10 Roman miles (c. 15.2 km) out from Capo Colonna, and their names: Dioscoron, Calypsus, Tyris, Eranusa, and Meloessa (HN 3.10.95-96). Two of them were still visible in the nautical charts that the seafarer and geographer Piri Reis drew in 1521, along with a detailed drawing of Croton's harbor. The islands appear also in Battista Agnese's Atlante Nautico (1553), and are described, for the last time, in a Greek portolano written by an anonymous sailor sometime in the 16th century.

Since the reconstruction of the ancient coastline and landscape is of crucial importance for archaeologists in order to better understand the ancient settlement of the area, Croton's Territorial Office (local branch of Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria), under Dr. Domenico Marino's scientific direction and with continued support from ProMare, recently began a systematic exploration of the Crotonian littoral, beginning with the 8 km of coastline between the city's harbor and La Tonnara. Main goal of the project is to search not only for wrecks, but particularly for traces of the ancient sunken coastline, submerged coastal quarries, and signs of past inhabitation. Particular attention is given to quarry blocks still connected to the bedrock, which, if found, provide clear hints to reconstruct and date working areas that in antiquity were emerged.

Publications:

Marino, D., Bartoli D., and A.D. Atauz. 2009. "Ancient Harbors and Submerged Islands: New Evidence from Croton, Italy." 2009 Portland GSA Annual Meeting (18-21 October 2009). Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 41, no. 7: 156.

URL: http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/abstract_158524.htm

Marino, D., Bartoli D., Corrado M., Liperoti D., and D. Murphy. 2010. "Prospezioni Archeologiche Subacquee a Crotone. Prima Campagna 2009 tra le Località Porto Vecchio e Tonnara." Fold&r Italia 192: 1-22.

URL: http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2010-192.pdf

Contact Information:

Dante Bartoli, ProMare, Inc. ( )

Domenico Marino, Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Calabria ( )

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