The beached shipwreck of Torre Santa Sabina (Brindisi, Italy). Preliminary study of the cargo and the hull

Torre Santa Sabina (Carovigno, Brindisi) in Apulia was chosen for a pilot intervention in the framework of the Interreg Italia- Croatia UnderwaterMuse Project, due to the quality and variety of the archaeological remains in the bay, with stratifications of events which are also significant markers of the coastal landscape evolution: cargoes and hulls – at least five wrecks that broke against its cliffs or beached – but also remains of quarries and settlements. The 2020-2021 mission was focused on the Roman wreck of the imperial age TSS 1 (late 3rd - first half of 4th c. AD), beached and abandoned at the ancient shore and now submerged due to the relative rise in sea level, a relevant marker of the seascape evolution. This wreck, embedded in the sand and a thick layer (mat) of degraded vegetable materials, is exceptionally well-preserved: it has yielded remains of the deck and the hatch, elements only rarely preserved. Some repair interventions (patch tenons) have been individuated in the planking. Unlike what usually appears in beached wrecks, the excavations brought to light amphorae, both intact and fragmentary, primarily produced in Africa Proconsularis, together with some other containers of different origin and vaulting tubules. Noteworthy is the presence of various items in org anic materials – hawsers, ropes, baskets, leather objects – as well as food remains, both faunal and botanical, found in the bilge well. However, the presence of grain weevils found in the latter suggests that the cargo may have included perishable materials, like cereals.