Mayorial visit to the important Bajo de la Campana subaquatic archaeological site, San Javier

Bajo de la Campana is the largest and most important phoenician boat site in the Region of Murcia

The Mayoress of San Javier, Josefa Garcia Hernandez, and the Government of Spains' delegate in the Region of Murcia, Rafael Gonzalez Tovar, visited the site of the most important subaquatic excavation in the Region of Murcia yesterday, Bajo de la Campana.

This site was first discovered in the 1950's, by divers scouring the seabed for salvageable artefacts, and is located at the foot of a rocky spine which has claimed many ships throughout the years, four ships lying in close proximity to each other, one Phoenician(7^th century BC, ) two roman, 1^st and 2^nd century AD and an 18^th century vessel..

This area has been the site of trading activity for thousands of years, the rich mineral deposits of the mines which litter this coastline attracting a succession of traders, and there are many wrecks littering the seabed along the regions' coastline, with 75 known aquatic archaeological sites.

The Phoenician remains are what make this site so exciting for archaeologists, as although the artefacts recovered may appear to hold very little interest to the casual beholder, they supply a wealth of information about one of the greatest and least documented seafaring nations of ancient history.

The Phoenicians travelled the whole of the Mediterranean coastline, and 2700 years ago were trading with the people who inhabited this region, taking part in a sophisticated commercial network.

On this boat are ingots of tin, nothing particular to look at, but representing a structured network of trading relationships. Archaeologists have found no proof that tin could have come from this area, so the likelihood is that those little pieces of raw metal had come down from the north of Spain, and there are also ingots of copper, so where had those come from?

This boat is believed to have been around 20 metres long when it sunk, and appears to have been carrying raw materials which would have been transported to workshops for manufacturing purposes in other parts of the Mediterranean, bearing ingots of tin, and various metals, as well as ivory from Africa.

In amongst the raw materials are tantalizing finds of the luxury goods for which these materials would have been traded, little pieces of amber , tools, a carved stone pillar, the ivory handle of a knife, little objects which merited great prestige for their owners on this coastline 2700 years ago.

However, for the archaeologists, it's not these items which cause the greatest excitement, it's the tiny things which give intimacy to the everyday activities of these people and which are the details that remain undocumented about their lives. One of the most interesting finds was a little pile of what turned out to be pine nuts, together with a few ragged teeth from 2700 year old pine cones which had lain beneath the silt intact, a gastronomic delicacy which is still widely used in Mediterranean cookery today.

So they prized pine nuts, as we do today.

A grinding dish for making sauces, fish sauces a popular component of the Mediterranean diet, manufactured, exported and traded extensively by the romans who colonized this area several hundred years later, a tantalizing hint as to the diet they enjoyed.

Tiny weights, used for bartering, inscriptions in the Phoenician alphabet on the tusks, more valuable historically than the tusks themselves.

And pieces of wood, almost more prized than anything else, yielding priceless information about the shipbuilding techniques used in those ancient times, evidence which is so rarely found due to the scarcity of wrecks from this era, boats of this size being few and far between.

Excavation of the site began in 2007, run jointly by the National Institute of Archaeology( INA)of the A and M University of Texas, with Research Associate , Mark E. Polzer, and the Spanish Ministry of Culture, represented by Juan Pinedo Reyes, an important marine archaeologist who has carried out numerous excavations around the regions' coastline.

The project is financed primarily by National Geographic, with the support of many other organizations, supported by the ARQUA, the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia Subacuatica, and we've listed just a few of the parties at the end.

Each summer, a team of volunteers work to excavate the site, an exhausting and painstaking operation which we'll describe in detail in a separate piece, undertaken by marine archaeology students and researchers from around the world, and this year there are volunteers on site from many countries, a truly international team from Greece, Holland, Australia, Italy, France, Turkey , the USA and Spain.

The Town hall of San Javier will be mounting an exhibition in the form of a mobile Centre of Intrepretation about the works being carried out by the team soon, to not only explain the extreme importance of this site in historical terms, but also help visitors to the area to understand the processes involved in marine archaeology and emphasise the importance of conserving sites such as these.

Much of the important knowledge gleaned lies not in spectacular artefacts, but in the tiny details such as the pine cones , and thoughtless vandalism by souvenir hunters can destroy irreplaceable historical evidence, so although this site is strictly vigilated, the aim is to educate that the value of what the archaeologists find lies not in monetary terms, but the historical detail it provides, the INA summing it up, "Out of darkness we find meaning, and out of what was lost, we find answers."

 

If you would like to know more about the Phoenicians, we have some information here on the site about the important Phoenician boat uncovered at Mazarron, Click for Mazarron 2.

If you would like to learn about the trading activities of the Phoenicians, there are some extremely interesting displays in the ARQUA, Cartagena, together with a reproduction of the small Mazarron 2 boat and some of the elephant tusks which came from the site before it was properly excavated.

 

Click for ARQUA.

 

We have a quantity of images, showing the archaeologists working and the finds, but are only allowed to use them in one report, so are preparing a full story for you with all the images, which we will publish next week,  so apologise for the lack of interesting pictures on this report- it was extremely choppy once we got out of port and into open water, and very difficult for the divers to work.

San Javier council are justifiably proud that this site is within their jurisdiction, and although it will take several more years to complete the excavation, the team working on the project are optimistic about the information still to be gleaned from what lies beneath the silt and rocks on the seabed, and hopeful that financing will continue, to enable them to complete their work.

 

The team would like to thank :

Ayuntamiento de San Javier

Consorcio La Manga

National Geographic

INA, Institue of Nautical Archaeology

Arqueomar

ARQUA

Capitania Maritima

Furnove

Associacion de amigos de la arqueologia subacuatica de Cadiz

Planeta Azul

Celestino maquinaria de Alquiler

Cademar

Puerto Tomas Maestre

And all the wonderful people who give their services for free on this project.

 

Back to News