A shipwreck off Croatia is forcing a second look at a murky stretch of Byzantine history.
The vessel sank in the Adriatic Sea off Mljet, a Croatian island, in the seventh or eighth century C.E. Its cargo included gold belt sets adorned with precious gemstones, coins minted under four emperors from the Heraclian dynasty, and a gold signet ring that may bear the likeness of Heraclius, who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 610 to 641.
The Croatian Conservation Institute began surveying the wreck in 2015. In a statement, the state-run institute said the ring could only have been worn by a high-ranking official authorized to seal documents in the emperor’s name.
The gold treasures recovered from the ship weigh more than 21 ounces. Igor Miholjek, the institute’s head of research, told Reuters that the trove is the largest of its kind “ever found on a shipwreck in the entire Mediterranean.”
Waters off Mljet are home to more than two dozen sunken ships spanning nearly 2,500 years. But Justin Leidwanger, an archaeologist at Stanford University, told Reuters the newly studied wreck stands out as “the most important shipwreck of its period.”
The find sheds light on a period with limited written records. “It’s a blank,” Francesco Borri, a medieval historian at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice who was not involved in the research, told National Geographic. “That’s why the discovery of this ship is so exciting.”
As National Geographic reported, the ship sank “when the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire were at a low point and when some historians believe that the Adriatic was an impoverished backwater, virtually devoid of shipping.” Its cargo suggests continued maritime activity in the region.
Researchers say the mix of objects raises fresh questions. The wreck also carried amphorae, ceramic pottery and game board pieces, along with goldsmithing equipment.
National Geographic reported that some of the gold belt sets were already decades old when the ship set sail. Researchers are continuing to analyze artifacts tied to the wreck and plan to revisit the site in search of more evidence.
For now, the purpose of the voyage remains uncertain. Miholjek told National Geographic, “whatever was going on here, this was no normal trading venture.”
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