The Roman Shipwrecks Project
A collaboration between JD Hill of the British Museum and a team from Southampton University (Michael Walsh, Justin Dix and Jon Adams) was set up in 2000 to search for Roman wrecks in British waters. Surprisingly, no Roman vessel has ever been located at sea, the only discoveries we have being 3 abandoned hulks in London, a riverboat in Wales and one in Ireland, and a hulk destroyed by fire in St Peter Port, Guernsey.
However, massive quantities of pottery have appeared in fishermen's nets off the North Kent coast at Herne Bay, in Pudding Pan and Pan Sand, some 4 kilometres apart. These place names probably derive from the Roman 'pans', shallow bowl shaped samian ware vessels which have emerged over the last two hundred years; at least 400 complete samian vessels of various forms have been plotted to date, with a date of around the mid 2nd century. The distinctive wear pattern of recovered material suggests that the cargo is still stacked in an inverted position on the seabed and that it has not been seriously disturbed by modern fishing techniques. The preservation of this 'coherent' wreck site may be due to deep sand or silt covering. The area is the first of 3 to be targeted in the search for an original wreck.
Pioneering methodologies using modern technology enabled maritime archaeologists to search for a wreck systematically. A sonar survey of a large area of seabed, combined with other data, such as fishermen's approximate hotspots, narrowed down the range of potential targets. In total 27.75km² of seabed was investigated and identification of 450 potential targets made. Eventually whittled down to 26 possible identifications, a number of the targets were proved geological, but a considerable proportion were archaeological, including a hitherto unknown 20th century fishing vessel wreck, a large group of barrels (perhaps 17th - 19th century) and two 2000lb WWII German parachute mines, subsequently exploded by a Royal Navy disposal team.
The information was digitised in a GIS package by Graeme Earl of the University of Southampton, drawing together topographical information from Admiralty charts, current and flow charts from the Coastguard Agency, net fastenings locations and fishermen's findings. In 2001 a watching brief, in cooperation with Walsh's oyster fishermen, monitored catches dredged from the seabed. The exercise enabled Michael Walsh to record the type of seabed material brought up by dredging and thus provide a clearer idea of the area of identification of Roman pottery.
A study of the existing recovered pottery continues, aiming to produce a new catalogue of all samian vessels recovered from the 'Pudding Pan wreck'. It is hoped to produce a detailed picture of a cargo of samian pottery en route to Britannia. This will enable comparison with quantities and qualities of samian found on sites around the country. The study will consider the numbers of vessels in the cargo and the range of forms, how the cargo was stacked inside the ship, where the vessels originated - from one source or many, and if one potter was producing a particular, or many diverse forms. Speculation has the original cargo comprising between 4,000 and 10,000 vessels.
Other finds in the area suggest more than one lost cargo. An amphora containing some 6000 olive pips is considered a separate entity as production of the type ceased by AD125/150; medieval and Tudor pottery also suggests a number of historic wrecks.
We hope to bring you updates of this fascinating project in future Newsletters. Information taken from www.arch.soton.ac.uk/Research/PuddingPan 25/2/03.