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ABSTRACT
Marble Tranport in the Time of the Severans: A New Analysis of the Punta Scifo A
Shipwreck at Croton, Italy.
(August 2008)
Dante Giuliano Bartoli, B.A., Università Statale degli Studi di Milano
Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Deborah N. Carlson
Five ancient shipwrecks have been found in the sea off Croton, in southern Italy,
each carrying a marble cargo composed of massive blocks, column shafts, and smaller
artifacts. Three of them were located while surveying the seafloor with a multibeam
sonar, and the remaining two with the help of divers, in the summers of 2005 and 2006.
Two of the marble carriers are located in the bay of Punta Scifo and, therefore, are
identified as the Punta Scifo A and Punta Scifo B shipwrecks, the remaining three take
their names from the closest promontories: Punta Cicala, Capo Cimiti, and Capo Bianco.
The Punta Scifo A shipwreck was chosen as the main focus of this work because
it contains a unique assemblage of marble artifacts; including 13 basins, 15 stands
decorated with lions’ paws, 16 column shafts, 14 blocks, 6 statue pedestals, and one
statuette of Eros and Psyche. Moreover, because the original discovery dates back to
1908, and in 1915 salvors raised 150 tons of marble artifacts, much information was in
danger of being lost. Consular inscriptions on the Punta Scifo A’s marble blocks and
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