Where would you find a shipwreck in ancient Rome?

sequoianoir

Caligula's giant ship. Building the Rome airport in the 1950s, on the old harbour site of Ostia, traces of an enormous ship were found: 95 m long and 21 m wide. This is larger than any of the grain carriers, which traded with Egypt and loaded 1000 tons. This ship may have been the one that emperor Caligula built for the transport of the obelisque from Egypt, which still stands at St Peter's Square in Rome. The hull planks were 10 cm thick and the ship may have been capable to load 1300 tons. The river port of Ostia and the harbour of Pozzuoli had constituted the two poles of Rome's harbour system throughout the entire Republican period. The discernible remains of the right mole of the Claudian harbour, excavated in 1957, are visible behind the Museum of the Roman Ships. The vessels currently displayed in the Museum of the Roman Ships came to light during the construction of the "L. Da Vinci" international airport of Fiumicino. They were excavated and recovered under the direction of the then inspector of the Rome Archaeological Superintendency, Dott.ssa V. Santa Maria Scrinari. The wrecks were found abutting the right mole of the Claudian harbour in a marginal area of the basin which was particularly susceptible to silting. We can hypothesise that in ancient times there must have been a veritable "cemetery" where boats and ships too old and in too poor condition to be of service were abandoned. http://www.abc.se/~m10354/uwa/wrekmed1.htm http://www2.rgzm.de/navis/Musea/Ostia/Fiumicino_English.htm Jan 24 04, 5:37 PM

mochyn

Not the answer I was looking for, it is a term used when chariots collided during a race. Jan 24 04, 5:46 PM