A Close Examination of an Ancient Naval Artefact

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Notes

1 de Cervin, ‘A problem in Naval Archaeology’, 299–301.

2 For a long time the artefact was exhibited in Genoa, at one time in the Ducal Palace and afterwards in the Genoese Armoury. In 1854 it was removed to the Royal Armoury in Turin.

3 Apparently de Cervin was unaware that as early as 1894 Cecil Torr had identified the Genoese artefact as a ‘smaller ram above [the ram]’. Torr, Ancient Ships, 65, 139.

4 Pridemore, ‘The form, function, and interrelationships of naval rams’, 99–100; Tisseyre, Il Rostro di Messina, 48; Murray and Petsas, ‘Octavian’s Campsite Memorial’, 133–3. Murray and Petsas and Pridemore seem to be under the impression that the head of the Genoa–Turin auxiliary ram is hollow (Murray and Petsas write that it is ‘a bronze sheath in the shape of a boars head’), which it was not.

5 At the same time, a second replica, slightly less accurate, was made and sent to Genoa to replace the original one. It is currently on display at the Museo di Archeologia Ligure in Genoa. Giancarlo Melano investigated at length the somewhat complicated whereabouts of the original and of the replicas. The result of his research will be published in Antonicelli and Melano, ‘Tra Genova e Torino’.

6 In the ancient chronicles that reported the finding there is no record of any wooden parts still attached to the artefact.

7 Steffy et al., ‘The Athlit Ram’, 229–50.