The Underwater Recovery of Monumental Marble Column Drums from an Ancient Shipwreck at Kızılburun, Turkey

Abstract

In the first century B.C., a stone carrier sank off the Aegean coast of Turkey at Kizilburun transporting all the elements of a monumental marble column, including a single Doric capital and eight drums. The 60-tonne cargo lay at a depth of 45–48 m and was excavated in its entirety by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University between 2005 and 2011. Ongoing research has shown that the Doric column pieces in the Kizilburun cargo originated in the marble quarries on Proconnesus Island in the Sea of Marmara and were very likely heading for the Temple of Apollo at Claros when the ship sank just 50 km short of its destination. The complete recovery of the ship’s cargo posed a unique set of methodological challenges involving lifting the multi-tonne marble drums without disturbing the delicate waterlogged wooden hull remains preserved beneath. This report summarizes the solutions developed over five seasons in order to rig, hoist, move, and ultimately raise to the surface eight large ancient marble column drums (as well as all the other marble artifacts in the cargo) from a depth of almost 50 m under water.