#MAREMonday 07

On 05.07.2021 we present the seventh session of our online lecture series with a contribution by

Max Fiederling
(Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

From Discovery to Display – Concept of an Interdisciplinary Exhibition

Abstract:

The final step of the research project „The Wreck Portiței A. A Roman Merchant Ship and Empties Transporter off the Black Sea Coast of Romania“ deals with the goal of creating a small-scale exhibition. The exhibition will display the results of the upcoming PhD of the lecturer and recreates the last voyage of the ship. The exhibition will be touring at least two different places, one of them being the village of Jurilovca and therefore nearby the original spot, where the wreck was discovered in 2016. This talk will discuss details of the small one-room concept for a touring exhibition and might ask for further approaches of communicating archaeological topics. Furthermore, the talk will be a plea for more cross-disciplinary collaborations.

The PhD and research project focuses on the archaeological analysis of the Roman shipwreck Portiței A, which was excavated from March 2016 until 2018 as part of a cooperation project between the Bavarian Society for Underwater Archaeology and the Institutul de Cercetări Eco-Muzeale Tulcea. Analysing the shipbuilding technique and studying the cargo of the wreck are the primary goals of this project. Further goals included tracing back the origin of the ship, its last route as well as reconstructing the average. The wreck site is of high archaeological importance due to its exceptional preservation status. In contrast to previous spectacular discoveries of antique wreck sites in the Black Sea, which were located during research campaigns of Robert Ballard and the MAP project, the wreck of Portiței A lies in shallow waters. Due to its location the researchers were able to fully prospect the wreck site with non-invasive digital methods and to excavate parts of the wreck to gain more detailed knowledge as well as taking samples for further scientific analyses. The aim is to further our knowledge of region-specific shipbuilding techniques and Roman trade routes as well as economic interchange in the Black Sea at the time. A further focus of the research lies on objects which have not always received the researcher’s attention such as ballast material, microscopical botanical remains as well as faunal remains. The mid-size Roman merchant ship was identified as one of the first in situ preserved empties transporters of its time, which raises further questions about the trade network and the economic structures in the Roman period in this specific region.