The Hellenistic Shipwreck of Phanagoria (Taman Peninsula, Black Sea, Russia): A Small Military Vessel

ABSTRACT

The shipwreck was discovered in 2012 close to the shoreline of the ancient settlement of Phanagoria, Taman Peninsula, Russia. In 2014, a bronze casing decorated with a crescent and star, a symbol associated with the Kingdom of Pontus and the reign of Mithridates VI Eupator, was discovered 1.5 m to the west of the keel’s extremity. In 2019, the site was re-opened to complete the study of the ship’s structure. This article discusses its architecture and provides a first interpretation of the ship.

KEYWORDS:

• Bronze casing
• military ship
• mortise-and-tenon
• shell first
• Pontic Kingdom

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Vladimir D. Kuznetsov, the head of Phanagorian expedition IA RAS, for the opportunity to study this shipwreck; Mikhail G. Abramzon for the identification of the coins; Carine Cenzon-Salvayre who performed the analyses of the wood samples; Momchil Panayotov, University of Forestry, Sofia (Bulgaria), for his help in the identification of the Macedonian pine. We are also grateful to Frédéric Guibal, Patrice Pomey, Katia Schörle and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which greatly helped us to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes

1 The analysis has been performed by the Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, USA. The sample code: IGAN_AMS 6994.

2 The difficulty to differentiate the wood anatomy of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) from that of the black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) and hooked pine (Pinus uncinata Ramond) led Carine Cenzon-Salvayre, who performed the analyses of the wood, to group the taxa under the name of ‘Scots pine type’.

3 The frames (single floor-timbers, couple of floor-timbers, half-frames) are generally marked with the letter F (frame) and a number. We use the letters A (aft) or F (fore) to distinguish the two elements forming a couple of floor-timbers in relationships to their position. Similarly, we use the letters P (port) and S (starboard) to indicate the position of the half-frames or other structures (strakes, ceiling) in relationships to the keel.

4 These nails are probably in iron but an analysis was not undertaken.

5 The pitch has been sampled and analyses are in progress.

6 The patrols vessels found in Oberstimm (Germany, beginning of the 2nd c. CE) and Mainz (Germany, 4th c. CE) have a slender shape (Bockius, 2002, 2006).

7 For a discussion about the pertinence of the term hekatontore for describing this ship, see Basch, 1995, p. 59.