A Roman Sprit-Rigged Vessel Depiction from Marmara Island (Proconnesos), Turkey

ABSTRACT

A Roman inscribed grave stela with a rare depiction of a sprit-rigged vessel was discovered in 1998 in the west necropolis of Saraylar on Marmara Island (ancient Proconnesos, modern Balıkesir Province, Turkey). Dated to the 2nd–3rd century AD, it was stolen in 2002 and recovered in 2016, and is now housed at the Bandırma Archaeological Museum. This article details new information provided by this and other Roman sprit-rig depictions documented since the 1950s, and discusses the possible roles of sprit-rigged vessels in Roman trade on the Sea of Marmara and Aegean.

KEYWORDS:

• Sprit rig
• Roman grave stela
• Proconnesos
• Marmara Island
• Roman ships
• ship iconography

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the director of the Bandırma Archaeological Museum, İlhame Öztürk, for permission to study the grave stela, and the museum’s staff for their assistance and hospitality. This work benefited from comments by Fred van Doorninck, J.-P. Sodini, and two anonymous reviewers. We also thank Olivier Delouis, Haris Theodorelis-Rigas, Inge Uytterhoeven, and Hüseyin Uzunoğlu for their assistance with the translation and interpretation of the inscription, and Günce Öçgüden for the Agisoft Metashape 3-D model. This work was generously funded by the Koç University Mustafa V. Koç Maritime Archaeology Research Center (KUDAR) and the Koç Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The authors thank Olivier Delouis, Haris Theodorelis-Rigas, and Inge Uytterhoeven for their translations and comments on the inscription, and Inge Uytterhoeven for providing references to similar inscriptions from Mysia.

2 Haris Theodorelis-Rigas, personal communication, 12 August, 2020:

This is difficult to translate with certainty. My first inkling is that this is the adjective δῖος (ϵι and ι are very often used interchangeably in the period), which means ‘noble’, ‘excellent’, used here simply as an adjective in praise the deceased’s technical abilities. Another reconstruction with the same effect would be δϵι(ν)οῦ misspelled by the stone cutter as δϵιου which would also mean ‘capable’, ‘terrific’, ‘excellent’. There are two more options: (a) that it is a patronymic (‘son of Deios or Dios’) [Note: this translation is favoured by I. Uytterhoeven] or a civic adjective (‘of Dion’). There are several classical and Hellenistic cities of Dion (Latinized as Dium) but I could not find this form as an adjective for their inhabitants.

3 Kybernetes is here translated here as ‘captain’, following Casson (1995, p. 300, 314–315, n. 66, 316, n. 72). One of three occurrences of this term on funerary stelae documented on https://inscriptions.packhum.org/ is from Mysia (IMT Kyz Kapu Dağ 1570 – 1st c. BC).

4 The word syngagomenoi could have at least two implied meanings in this context: either as a more general term (‘ … those who have come to settle in the port … ’), or as a more specific term for a formal ‘assembled’ group similar to a trade association or guild (H. Theodorelis-Rigas, personal communication, 12 August 2020).

5 Or, ‘ … those who have settled in the port’. According to inscriptions.packhum.org, nautai are only attested on funerary inscriptions in Mysia: in Parion (IMT Gran/Pariane 1028: 2ndc. AD) and the Kyzikos region (IMT Kyz PropInseln 1321: Imperial period) (Special thanks to I. Uytterhoeven for noting the geographic distribution of this term in funerary inscriptions).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Koç University Mustafa V. Koç Maritime Archaeology Research Center (KUDAR) and the Koç Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED).