A piece of an Ancient Roman jug and a bowl have been found in the waters off Vis island by a team of specialist archaeologists. Among the crew was Mariusz Milka, part of the team behind Seamagination, and interviewed by Time Out Croatia in January.
Seaimagination creates a digital documentation of Croatia’s cultural heritage underwater and on land.
Mariusz was working alongside Tea Katunarić, an underwater archaeologist from Split University.
The artefacts were discovered near the small islet of Host off the north-east coast of Vis. Only popular with tourists in recent years, Vis was off-limits to visitors for many decades, and has no industry – so the waters around it are clear. Mariusz and his team have just published this short video clip showing their successful endeavour:
Once occupied by Ancient Greeks and Romans, Vis has long been a happy hunting ground for divers in search of rare finds. Mariusz is keen to point out that novices should not remove any potential historic treasure from its location:
“If you find an archaeological artefact underwater, do not take it out. Instead, mark the place so that it can be easily found again. It would also be a good idea to take a photo of the find so that you don’t have to try to describe it in words when you report it to the appropriate people or institutions. In Croatia, such a find can be reported to the Ministry of Culture and Media, the local archaeological museum or to local archaeologists, for example, from a university.”
“Treasures found underwater in Croatia are primarily sent for desalination. If something lies in the Adriatic for hundreds or thousands of years, it becomes saturated with salt water. Because the salt is dissolved in it, it does not have a destructive effect while the object remains submerged.”
“However, the situation changes dramatically when we pull the seawater-soaked object onto land. Drying causes the salt to crystallize. Bouncing crystals can quite easily destroy the delicate structure of pottery and lead to clay other materials cracking. Therefore, before ancient treasures are dried, they must spend up to two years in fresh water, which is replaced from time to time. Then the dissolved sea salt has plenty of time to slowly leave the object into surrounding fresh water. And the residue that remains in the material forever usually no longer poses a threat.”
“After desalination, each treasure ends up in the hands of experts. These may be experts from museums or universities. They can properly assess the age of the item, material, condition and which geographical area it came from. Finally, such a treasure, especially if it is unique, goes on display in a museum so that everyone can see it.”