#MAREMonday 21

On 03.04.2023 we present the 21th session of our online lecture series with a contribution by

Soledad Solana Rubio
(Universidad de Cádiz)

Underwater Archaeology in the Bay of Algeciras:
non-intrusive documentation in a privileged nautical area

Abstract:

The subject of my research is navigation and maritime traffic in the Strait of Gibraltar, an obligatory passageway between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and for communication between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. I started my groundwork during my master’s degree in Nautical and Underwater Archaeology at the University of Cadiz, in the framework of the project „Herakles – Between the Pillars of Hercules, underwater archaeology of a privileged space: The Bay of Algeciras“1 in which I now work as a researcher. This project aims to identify, research and enhance underwater archaeological heritage of the Bay of Algeciras.

This area, attractive from a strategic point of view, controls the connection between two continents and between two seas, promoting, century after century, a great number of nautical events, but also the exceptional development of its populations and commercial links. In addition, in the inner part of the Bay there are several safe anchorage areas, with sandy seabed and protected from strong winds and currents. However, there are also dangerous reefs that often cause accidents when ships come too close to them, either through ignorance or because they are pushed by strong winds. The case study on which I did my master thesis is the El Anclote shipwreck, from the 2nd century AD, with a homogeneous cargo of Baetican amphorae, made for the transport by sea of fish-based products. This specific typology of amphorae, called Puerto Real 1, were only produced in a workshop in the Bay of Cádiz, according to archaeological research carried out in the Baetican potteries. The fact that its remains have been found in the Bay of Algeciras is evidence that this ship connected the cities of Gadir and Carteia, Iulia Traducta or possibly Septem, for commercial purposes.

The techniques applied in this research follow the guidelines of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, to develop the innovative methodology based on obtaining the maximum diagnostic information achievable while causing the lowest possible impact. It has been used to establish, subsequently, a non-intrusive working method, applied by the Herakles Project for the survey work. The team have found more than 150 wrecks and has undertaken preliminary documentation of 30 of them in a single fieldwork season (summer 2022). However, it is not only a matter of documenting sites; Archaeology is a science of historical interpretation. In the future, my Phd thesis aims to apply this methodology to other underwater archaeological sites in the Strait of Gibraltar, to locate, document and protect them, but also to give them a nautical and maritime interpretation, relating them to each other, to the landscape and to their culture. Only in this way will we be able to understand how the Strait of Gibraltar has been the scene of communication, exchange and development throughout history.

1 This work has been co-funded by the ERDF Operational Programme 2014-2020 and by the Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Business and University of the Andalusian Regional Government. Project reference: FEDER-UCA18-107327.