Two more bronze ship rams recovered

Underwater archaeology near the Egadi Islands west of Sicily has yielded several ships’ rams in recent years. The counter stood at eleven pieces, of which one was Carthaginian (see: Sicily and the Sea, temporary exhibition in Amsterdam). This year, two more battering rams named Egadi 12 and Egadi 13 were salvaged from the sea bottom.

Like the previous ones, these ship’s rams belong to the Punic Wars opposing Rome and Carthage during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. One of the newly recovered rams carries an antique Punic inscription, confirming that it belonged to a Carthaginian ship.

Besides these wonderful and unique rams, ten bronze helmets of the Montefortino type have also been recovered. One of these helmets displays a lion skin motif surrounding the central knob. Interestingly, the Carthaginian ships’ ram presented at the Sicily and the Sea exhibition mentioned above had the imprint of a Montefortino helmet.

These results are pretty promising for next year’s excavation season!

[The top picture is from La Reppublica Palermo presenting a slideshow of most of the finds]