Download Pdf of Dissertation - Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M ...

(MOB 8), and a lead plate representing Heracles holding a hind (MOB 9). According to
my catalog, the Punta Scifo A shipwreck was carrying no fewer than 16 column shafts, 15
bases decorated with lions’ paws, 14 blocks, 13 basins, six statue pedestals, four marble
slabs, and one statuette. Forty-two artifacts were available for study, while 27 others are
missing at present. Table 7 presents all the marble artifacts from Punta Scifo A arranged
according to type classification of three letters followed by their catalog number. The
catalog nomenclature is found on p. ix, and pictures for each item appear alongside in
Appendix 1. Little is known regarding the five Attic column bases (ABA 1-5) and three
Ionic column capitals (ICA 1-3) today located at the Nautical Museum of Capo Colonna,
and in the “Caputi” public square in Croton. They are not mentioned in Orsi’s reports, and
while their maritime provenience is clear due to the sea weathering and encrustation still
visible on their surfaces, it is not known whether they came from the Punta Scifo A
shipwreck or from another site in the area of Croton. My own impression, however, is that
both Paolo Orsi and the Forcellini company, who recorded even heavily-eroded artifacts
like the pedestal MPL 3, would not have omitted such well-preserved bases and capitals
from their accounts. I suspect therefore that these items come from a different site.
According to Pensabene, who recorded three bases and three capitals of the total eight in
1978, their marble comes from Docimium, but it is not pavonazzetto. It is a whiter variety
of stone, similar to pavonazzetto but without the purple veins, called White Synnadic. For
this reason they are included in the Catalog in Appendix 1, but are not associated with the
artifacts from Punta Scifo A. 115
115 Pensabene 1978a, 108.
82