Archaeologists have discovered a 1.7 thousand-year-old Roman merchant ship in Majorca.

Just 2 meters under the water of Playa de Palma, archaeologists have discovered a surprisingly well-preserved Roman merchant ship that sank about 1.7 thousand years ago. The vessel, dubbed the Ses Fontanelles, found off one of the most popular tourist beaches in Mallorca, has opened a unique window into the world of late Roman trade, shipbuilding and daily life in the western Mediterranean. This was announced on November 5 by the online platform Arkeonews.

The ship was spotted by a local resident Felix Alarcon. During the morning swim, he saw fragments of an ancient tree protruding from the seabed and contacted the local cultural heritage protection authorities. After the investigation, experts confirmed the discovery of a 12-meter-long vessel dating from about the middle of the IV century AD.

Archaeologists believe that the ship sailed from a major Roman port on the southern coast of Cartagena, Spain, and was carrying olive oil, wine, and garum, a fermented fish sauce widely used in the Roman Empire. The exact time of the crash was helped by a coin found under the mast, minted in the city of Siscia (modern Croatia) around 320 AD.

According to Enrique Garcia, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands, the ship's safety is exceptional. He stressed that after the sinking, the ship was quickly covered with sand, which deprived it of oxygen and prevented biodegradation.

Dozens of amphorae remained sealed, while parts of the hull and deck boards remained intact. Among the finds are a pair of leather shoes, a carpenter's drill, probably used for repairs on board, and an oil lamp depicting the goddess Diana, a symbol of hunting and the moon. Some amphorae have Christian monograms, reflecting the transitional period when pagan and Christian beliefs coexisted in the late Roman world.

The cargo contained rich epigraphic evidence. Many of the amphorae were marked with "picty titles"—pictorial inscriptions that indicated the manufacturer, contents, and tax codes. Researchers from the University of Cadiz, led by Professor Dario Bernal, described the collection as one of the largest ever discovered in Spain.

"These inscriptions reveal the administrative and commercial networks that supported Roman trade. At least seven people were involved in labeling the containers, which gives us an idea of the scale of the industrial organization behind the Mediterranean trade," Bernal stressed.

According to laboratory analysis, the clay of the amphorae originates from the south-east of Spain. This confirms the role of Murcia as a center for the production of butter and fish sauce in the era of late antiquity.

Shipwrecks from the late Roman Empire are extremely rare. Most of the ships of earlier eras were destroyed or dismantled long before the advent of systematic conservation methods, so Ses Fontanelles is a unique time capsule for studying shipbuilding technologies, trade logistics and the daily lives of sailors plying between Iberia, North Africa and the Balearic Islands.

This find also helps to understand the Roman history of Majorca itself. After the conquest of the island by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus in 123 BC, Majorca became a strategic point in the western Mediterranean. In the 4th century, the area of Playa de Palma was a lagoon-haven, later covered with silt, where ships sheltered from storms - probably where the ill-fated trader tried to get to before sinking.

The wooden remains of the ship remain in place under a protective layer of sand, while the amphorae and other artifacts have been transported for conservation. According to Dr. Carlos de Juan from the University of Valencia, preparations are currently underway to remove the hull in parts, not in its entirety, since the keel separated during previous storms.

After extraction, each piece of wood will undergo a desalination process in freshwater tanks at San Carlos Castle (Palma) to remove salt and corrosion traces before being treated and stabilized. Complete conservation and reconstruction will take at least five years, after which the ship will become the central exhibit of the Mallorca Maritime Heritage Museum.

Earlier, on June 12, the Franceinfo radio station reported the discovery of the wreckage of a 16th-century shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of France. It was noted that the anchor, cannons for defense in front and behind the ship, as well as two large boilers were almost completely preserved. Previously, the ship could have departed from a port in northwestern Italy, but the destination and the causes of the sinking were not determined.

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