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when it hit the rocks of the promontory, with its bow pointed towards the bay of Punta
Scifo. These data may show that the ship’s captain miscalculated the route while trying
to pass Punta Cicala, and could not steer the ship, possibly during a storm of easterly
Grecale winds. Little information is available regarding Freschi’s work on this site in
1983 and 1984, since it was impossible to find her final excavation report in 2006. 98
The Capo Cimiti Shipwreck
The site of Capo Cimiti is composed of four long and one short column shafts,
resting at a depth of 6 m on a rocky seafloor intermixed with sand. The columns'
dimensions and tonnage are given in Table 4. They cover an area of ca. 12 m x 10 m and
are still stacked one next to the other, with the exception of the smallest column shaft,
which is isolated at a distance of ca. 5 m from the other four. Between August 16 and
August 27, 1988, the archaeological cooperative Aquarius drew a new site plan of the
five column shafts at Capo Cimiti. 99
Compared with the column shafts from Punta Scifo A, the columns visible at
Capo Cimiti are considerably longer and wider in diameter. Based on the typology
proposed on pp. 98-9 of Chapter III these items are remarkably large, even if longer
shafts of 40 R.ft. (11.8 m) and 50 R.ft. (14.8 m) are known in the Roman world.
According to Pensabene’s analyses, the marble is green cipollino from Euboea, the price
98 A. Freschi herself mentions the archaeological campaigns that took place at Punta Cicala (Freschi 1987,
10). There can be no doubt that an excavation report was filed after the 1983 field work season, since
Pensabene mentions it in his writing. (Pensabene 2002a, 36-7).
99 Freschi 1988, 77-86.
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