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five more labra, two pedestals, and three squared pedestals, 107 it is possible to postulate
that this Roman merchantman was carrying ca. 200 tons of marble when it sank at Punta
Scifo. The ship was wrecked in the early third century A.D., as revealed by the consular
inscriptions and Kapitän 2 amphoras on board, which provide a terminus post quem to date
the wreck.
Using the multibeam image as a basis for reconstructing the site, and adding scaled
drawings of the blocks and column shaft measured in 2006, as well as all material raised in
past years, the tentative dimensions of the Roman merchantman can be proposed.
According to these data, the original ship was ca. 30 m long and 10 m wide. The heaviest
marble blocks were placed amidships, and beside them, the column shafts. The three
blocks BLC 11-12-13 and the adjacent column shaft COL 7 are the heaviest items of the
entire cargo after BLC 14, and it seems unlikely that they have moved from their original
resting place on the seabed when the ship sank. They provide evidence both that the ship
was oriented perpendicularly to the shore when it was lost, and that all the column shafts
were placed along the ship’s longitudinal axis. 108 The cargo had to be placed as close as
possible to the keel in order to lower the center of gravity of the vessel, and make it more
stable; lighter elements such marble slabs and basins were probably placed in a second row
atop the blocks. Figure 29 provides a three-dimensional rendering of the marble elements
from Punta Scifo A drawn to scale.
107 Pensabene 2002a, 36-7.
108 See Table 11, p. 108 for the detailed dimensions of every single block. The shipwrecks from Mahdia,
Giardini Naxos, Marzamemi 1, and Capo Taormina are a testament to such an arrangement of columns being
standard procedure in Roman times. Mahdia: see Höckmann 1994, 53-4; Giardini Naxos: see Basile 1988,
135; Marzamemi 1: see Kapitan 1971, 301-2; Capo Taormina: see Kapitan 1971, 304.
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