In the last years of the 2nd century, a wooden ship with a load of stone semi-products arrived from one of the ports of the Eastern Mediterranean to the ancient port of Brac, not far from the famous quarries on the northern side of the island. He supplemented his burden with stone pillars and semi-finished stone sarcophagi. The probable destination of that ship was Salona, a large ancient city in the hinterland of today's Split.
Having set sail from the port that is now called Splitska, the ship headed towards its overseas destination, but a strong gale forced it to stay close to the northern side of the island of Brač. So he soon passed a large rustic Roman villa in the area of present-day Sutivan and sailed further down the coast to the west. Not far from Sutivan, in front of the Likva bay, he tried to turn the bow towards Salona again, but for some reason, probably due to the movement of the cargo, water entered the ship's deck and the crew soon found themselves in a dangerous position.
Disturbed balance due to the rapid penetration of water, the ship turned the bow to the west again, but too late. The water quickly reached below decks and the ship instantly found itself below the surface of the sea, and reached the bottom without capsizing, trapping at least one unfortunate sailor among its cargo. Although at a depth of about 30 meters, the ship sank not far from the land, so the remaining sailors probably saved their lives by swimming. Buried in the sea mud and sand by the weight of its cargo, the ill-fated ancient ship remained forgotten at its destination for over 1,700 years, until it was found by local divers in 2008 and reported to the underwater archaeologists of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.
The finding was confirmed and recognized in 2009, and in the following years, research was carried out that provided unique frameworks for this interesting story that we will tell you on these pages.
The site and finds exhibited in the Sutivan National Library
Bone dice
The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia entrusted the National Library of Sutivan with the desalinated and restored findings of small ship's inventory found at the site, lower leg bones that were found wedged between stone cargo and were concluded to have belonged to one of the crew members, a small stone stele - a semi-finished tombstone and an interesting find - bone dice. It can be determined that it was serially produced due to the very finely engraved markings of the numerical value on the faces of the cube. Bone gambling cube, 2nd century, over 1800 years old, a rarity for underwater sites.
Oil lamp
Oil bottle of Bucchi X type with the mark VIBIANI, dating from the beginning of the 1st to the beginning of the 3rd century.
A fragment of a fluted pot
This fragment belongs to the group of Eastern kitchen ceramics. Such highly standardized vessels, which are common in the Aegean region, can be dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was found as kitchenware. The position of the dishes found suggests that the ship's galley is located on the eastern side of the site, which indicates that the ship sailed north.
Lid
Lid, 2nd century, belongs to the group of Eastern kitchen ceramics. Such highly standardized vessels, which are common in the Aegean region, can be dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was found as kitchenware. The position of the dishes found suggests that the ship's galley is located on the eastern side of the site, which indicates that the ship sailed north.
A bronze nail
Part of the ship structure.
Ancient "Lido game"
Start the ancient version of "Man don't get angry" and learn about the sunken Roman ship with the game. Play with figurines of Roman cargo ships and set sail from the Brac quarry, and the first one to find refuge in the harbor wins the game.
