The Shipwreck at Black Assarca Island, Eritrea

Overview

Discovered in 1995 by tourists, the shipwreck at Black Assarca Island, Eritrea was surveyed in 1995 and excavated in 1997 by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology [http://ina.tamu.edu] under the auspices of the Ministry of Marine Resources of Eritrea. Directed by Ralph K. Pedersen [http://ina.tamu.edu/pedersenbio.htm] , the expedition partially excavated the shipwreck containing ceramics of Near Eastern/Mediterranean origin. Most notably, the wreck contained amphoras of a type found previously at Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite Kingdom in what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia; Metara; Adulis, the Aksumite port city located on the west side of Zula Bay; Berenike, the Ptolemaic harbor in Egypt; and at Aqaba, Jordan, where excavations in the 1990s and early 2000s by a team from North Carolina discovered the kilns where some of these amphora types were fired. These long and conical "carrot shaped" amphoras decorated with corrugations, or rilling, are now called by archaeologists "Ayla-Axum" amphoras after their seemingly maximal distribution points on the Red Sea, with Ayla/Aila the ancient name for Aqaba.

The shipwreck is dated stylistically by the amphoras, which likely date to the fifth or sixth centuries after Christ.

Other material includes a counter-balance weight for a steelyard, a piece of glass, and two other amphora types: one a round amphora, and the other a wider version of the conical type. Both of these types share stylistic characteristics with the Ayla-Axum vessels. No hull remains were found in the 1997 excavation season.

For further information:

The Aksumite-Period Shipwreck at Black Assarca Island, Eritrea [http://ina.tamu.edu/assarca.htm]

"Under the Erythraean Sea: The Shipwreck at Assarca Island, Eritrea" in "INA Quarterly" [http://ina.tamu.edu/quarterly/V27%20Nos2-3.pdf]