The Porticello Shipwreck: A Mediterranean Merchant Vessel of 415–385 B.C. by Cynthia J. Eiseman, Brunilde S. Ridgway

Abstract

668 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE record of scientific investigations dating from the first chance obser­ vations in the 1850s that had led to the understanding of the origins of these biblical dyes. Herzog was not satisfied with relying on ancient sources alone and turned for advice to British, French, and German experts in “tinctorial chemistry” who had made their names in the held of synthetic dyes. Other sections of the book deal with the extensive archaeological evidence for the existence of the industry (Nira Karmon and Ehud Spanier), the role of the purple in late antiquity and Byzantium (Jane Bridgeman), the chemical aspects (Otto Eisner and Spanier), the varieties of snails (Spanier and Karmon), their connection with the purple dye (Henk K. Mienis and Spanier), and Jewish religious (halakic) aspects (Israel I. Ziderman). Eisner and Spanier pay special attention to chemical history, reaching back to the earliest non-Jewish writings on dyeing, which are conspicuous for the absence of tekhelet. The ongoing mystery is due in part to the monopolistic position conferred on those once involved in producing and regulating the supply of the color. The problems of biblical nomenclature, so painstakingly tackled by Herzog, are clari­ fied as far as it is possible by Ziderman. The contributors indicate that further important discoveries are to follow as chemical, biological, and archaeological inquiries continue. In the meantime, students of ancient technology and culture will be grateful for an inspiring piece of multidisciplinary scholarship. Anthony S. Travis Dr. Trams is with the Sidney M. F.delstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications on chemical technology include the forthcoming “Perkin’s Mauve: Ances­ tor of the Organic Chemical Industry,” in Technology and Culture. The Porticello Shipwreck: A Mediterranean Merchant Vessel of 415—385 u.c. By Cynthia J. Eiseman and Brunilde S. Ridgway (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1987). Pp. xii+126; illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $89.50. Underwater archaeology, established as a proper academic disci­ pline by the redoubtable George Bass in the 1960s, has slowly but surely expanded its scholarly credibility and utility. Perhaps because submerged sites are relatively less vulnerable to looting than terres­ trial ones—or were until recently at least—some of the most exciting archaeological finds of late have been beneath the seas. But archae­ ologists are careful folk, and the underwater medium is demanding; this plus the exacting requirements of conserving artifacts removed from extended saltwater immersion impose extended delays between TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 669 discovery and publication. Consequently, the discipline is only now beginning to accumulate a solid base of secondary literature. This little gem from Bass’s Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M, published with the assistance of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is a beautiful example. Combining an adventure story with a detailed site report, this beautifully produced monograph does full justice to the discipline and to its subject, a merchant ship that went down off the Calabrian coast around the time of the Peloponnesian Wars. The story begins with the discovery of amphora and bronze statuary fragments on the bottom by sports divers, alerted to the site by local fishermen, in 1969. Cognizant of the value of their finds on the antiquities market, the discoverers began surreptitiously removing and marketing them in violation of Italian law. This, through an involved chain of circum­ stances, in turn alerted the local police, the carabinieri (a special carabinieri diving unit drew up the initial site plan), Italian museum authorities, and the University Museum of the University of Pennsyl­ vania, organizer of the excavation campaigns of 1970 and 1971, the results of which constitute the bulk of the book. The authors do a commendably thorough job in evaluating and assessing the materials recovered from the site. These include strik­ ingly beautiful elements of classical bronze statuary (which receive their full due aesthetically as well as analytically; the photographs are superb, and Brunilde Ridgway’s analysis of their construction is a high point and of particular interest to students of technology) and such mundane objects as an intriguingly diverse assortment of amphora, fragments of hull timbers, nails, and an impressively...