Marine archaeologists off the coast of Sicily, near Trapani, have successfully recovered the Marausa 2, a 1,700-year-old Roman merchant ship found in a near-perfect state of preservation. Located at a depth of just two meters, this 3rd-century A.D. shipwreck directly challenges conventional theories regarding the Decline of the Roman Empire. The hull’s structure, built with high-precision mortise and tenon joinery, combined with its diverse cargo, proves that naval engineering and globalized trade networks in the Mediterranean continued to operate with a level of technological sophistication that no historian expected to find during an era of supposed imperial crisis.
In this video, we explore the incredible rescue of the Marausa 2, a true time capsule protected for centuries by mud and seagrass. We dive into the ship’s hold, which functioned as a “floating supermarket” stocked with wine amphorae from Italy, oil from North Africa, and fish sauces from Spain. You will discover how this find reveals the existence of industrial shipyards that produced standardized “twin” ships and how Rome’s economic resilience maintained international luxuries despite political instability on land. We also detail the complex engineering operation required to lift the millenary wooden hull without it crumbling upon contact with the air.
In this video, we explore the incredible rescue of the Marausa 2, a true time capsule protected for centuries by mud and seagrass. We dive into the ship’s hold, which functioned as a “floating supermarket” stocked with wine amphorae from Italy, oil from North Africa, and fish sauces from Spain. You will discover how this find reveals the existence of industrial shipyards that produced standardized “twin” ships and how Rome’s economic resilience maintained international luxuries despite political instability on land. We also detail the complex engineering operation required to lift the millenary wooden hull without it crumbling upon contact with the air.