Note C — 4 Roman Colonies in Italy

Undersea exploration, one of the most fascinating branches of archaeology, has not been carried as far in Italy as in France (see, e.g., P. Diolé, 4,000 Years under the Sea [New York, 1954]). But this is a convenient place to report a 1950 Italian operation off Albenga, on the Ligurian coast between Genoa and the French border. Along this stretch of the Italian Riviera fishermen’s nets had frequently brought up amphorae, presumably from an ancient wreck, which was soon located in twenty fathoms. The use of an iron grab damaged the sunken hull, but an impressive number and variety of objects were recovered. The ship yielded up over 700 more or less intact cork-sealed, pitch-lined amphorae, from a cargo of perhaps thrice that number; their shape was that current in the second and first centuries B.C. Some had contained wine, others still held hazel-nuts. Campanian black-glaze pottery, of a type datable in the last half of the second century B.C., was found in sufficient quantity to enable Professor Nino Lamboglia, who was in charge of the operation, to set up a whole typology of black-glaze ware, based on types, fabric, and glaze, a typology which proved a useful check for dating Cosan pottery, and for which the Cosan results have provided some corrections. Lead pipes and lead sheathing resembled those found in the ships from Lake Nemi (see Chapter 7), and a stone crucible with molten lead in the bottom suggested that running repairs could be carried out at sea. Fragments of three helmets, of unusual design, may have been intended for Marius’ army, which was campaigning in the north against Germanic tribes in the late second century B.C. The finds are on display in the Albenga Museum (see N. Lamboglia, “Il Museo Navale Romano di Albenga,” Rivista Ingauna e Intemilia [1950] Nos. 3 and 4).