Recent find shows Malta may have been part of early Phoenician trade network

A jug unearthed at the oldest shipwreck in the central Mediterranean could prove that the Maltese islands were an integral part of the Phoenician trade network.

A team of marine archaeologists has been visiting the oldest shipwreck in the central Mediterranean
[Credit: D Gration and Hittinen/Subzone/University of Malta]

“To date, we knew that the Phoenicians lived here, because they died here. And to date, our main archaeological sources came from graves,” marine archaeologist Timmy Gambin told The Sunday Times of Malta.

“We now have a ship that was actually leaving the Maltese Islands before it sank off Gozo, because the island was one of its port calls. A shipwreck without any local items could mean that the ship just happened to sink close to Malta during its voyage.”

Confirming the origin of the jug, he said, could place Malta as an integral part of the trading network of the earliest phase of the Phoenician occupation.

The discovery of the Phoenician vessel off Gozo’s northwestern coast more than 2,700 years after it sank, laden with amphorae and grinding stones, made international headlines in 2014.

The team also discovered around 20 lava stones that were probably used to grind wheat 
[Credit: D Gration and Hittinen/Subzone/University of Malta]

Spread across a 15-by-four-metre area 110 metres below sea level, there are around two metres of archaeological remains under the seabed, which most probably include wooden remains from the ship.

In July of 2014, the site was surveyed, samples were extracted and a technical team put together 8,000 photographs to create a high-resolution, 3D model of the area. The survey of the shipwreck was carried out within the Groplan Project, which was funded by the French National Research Agency.

But bad weather cut short the 2014 expedition, and after lifting two amphorae, an urn and a grinding stone from the shipwreck, the team did not manage to carry out a final 3D mapping of the site with the missing samples.

Lacking funding and the necessary equipment, such as a submarine, it was difficult to complete the survey in the following months. So together with a colleague from Finland, Kari Hyttinen, Dr Gambin tested out a manual way of completing the survey on two underwater airplane wrecks.