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The Persian War Shipwreck Survey
Reported by
Shelley Wachsmann, PhD
Institute of Nautical Archaeology
PO Drawer HG
College Station, TX 77841-5137
U.S.A.
Tel. (979) 847-9257
Fax (979) 847-9260
E-mail: [email protected]
Words: 1003
Wachsmann: Persian War Shipwreck Survey (2006)
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The Persian War Shipwreck Survey (PWSS). Shelley Wachsmann (Institute of
Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University) reports on the Persian War Shipwreck
Survey, a collaborative project of the Canadian Institute in Greece (CIG), the Greek
Ephorate of Maritime Antiquities (EMA), directed by Katerina Delaporta, and the
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), directed by George Chronis. The project
aims to locate, map and record shipwrecks, their cargoes and related artifacts in areas
where historical sources indicate that large fleets sank due to weather or battles during the
Persian War. HCMR’s research vessel, the 62m R/V Aegaeo served as the base of
operations and the team used the ship’s deep-water equipment (sidescan sonar, bottom
profiler, Thetis submersible and remote operated vehicles [ROVs]) in the survey.
“The fourth (2006) cruise examined the Magnesian coast and the southern side of the
Artemision Channel.
Along the Magnesian coast the expedition collected sidescan sonar targets and acoustic
profile data. Our scans covered a linear distance of over 200km and we examined some
75 sidescan anomalies with the Max Rover ROV, while we employed the Thetis to survey
regions closer to shore and around rocky headlands.
This survey may have contributed to our understanding of the geography related to the
the location Herodotus (VII, 179-192) gives for the losses to the Persian fleet off the coast
of Magnesia. We visually inspected the coast from modern Cape Sepias north to the plain
that divides the massif of Mt. Pelion from that of Mt. Ossa. In this area we searched for
remains of Xerxes’ ships destroyed by a nor’easter that lasted three days while the fleet
anchored between its base at Therma (modern Thessaloniki) and its stations at Aphetae,
opposite the Greek fleet arrayed at Aretemision. One of the challenges in searching for
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these ships is determining the precise location of the beach where they had anchored
when the storm hit. According to Herodotus, the beach was located “between Kasthanaia
and Cape Sepias” and was too small to pull all the ships ashore, causing the fleet to
anchor “eight-deep.” He reports some 400 warcraft lost to the storm along with
numerous support vessels and notes that the wreckage scattered to sites that included the
Ipnoi (“Ovens”) near Mt. Pelion, as well as Sepias, Miliboa and Kasthanaia. Greek
lookouts on Euboea witnessed the consequences of the storm on the Persian fleet.
Modern nautical charts identify Cape Sepias as the headland at Magnesia’s southeastern
tip. If this is correct, it implies that the short stretches of beach immediately to the north
should be where the disaster occurred. Pritchett and other scholars expressed doubts
about this identification, however. They note that modern Cape Sepias lies close to the
beaches at Aphetai—the Persians’ intended destination and a coastline protected from
northeasterly winds. It seemed unlikely that the Persians would have preferred to stop
just short of their goal on an unsuitable beach.
Although it appears that no researcher surveyed the entire Magnesian Coast from the
sea to establish the location of all possible beaches, some spectacular caves near the
coast’s northern end convinced Pritchett and others to identify them with the “Ovens.”
The editors of the Barrington Atlas of Classical Antiquity agree with this identification,
and follow the revisionists in identifying a nearby site as “Kasthanaia” and an apparent
promontory to the south as “Sepias.”
Our survey revealed many caves at the water’s edge. Additionally, a few miles north of
Pritchett’s proposed site for the narrow beach where the disaster occurred we noted a
spectacular beach, over 9km long, that could have easily accommodated the entire Persian
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fleet. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that the Greek lookouts would have known of the
disaster if it occurred so far north. Nevertheless, we did conduct sidescan sonar and ROV
searches in this area, encountering here (as elsewhere on the Magnesian Coast) a heavilysedimented bottom with no visible remains. We agree with the localization of Cape
Sepias on modern nautical charts, which place it at the southeastern headland of Magnesia
and believe that the beach at Agios Ioannes may conform best to the geographical
considerations given by Herodotus.
We hoped that the survey of the southern side of the Artemision Channel would not
have to contend with deep sediments as this area has yielded some of the most spectacular
antiquities recovered from the sea. In the 1920s the famous Artemision bronze statues of
the striding god (Zeus or Poseidon), the racehorse and the jockey came from a shipwreck
site about 500m offshore from Pevki Bay—the ancient station of the Greek war fleet at
Artemision in August, 480 B.C. These statues, dating from the fifth century B.C. and the
Hel period respectively appear to have been part of the cargo of a ship that sank during
the Hel or Rom periods. It seemed reasonable, therefore, to anticipate that other
antiquities might lie exposed in the seafloor in this area. Neither sidescan nor ROV
searches revealed any ancient remains here in 2006, however. Perhaps currents running
through the channel scour the seafloor in unpredictable ways here.
One Thetis dive discovered a cluster of some 20 amphoras at the southeastern end of the
Artemision channel, strongly suggesting the presence of a shipwreck there (Fig. 1). EMA
archaeologists recovered one amphora for cleaning and further study (Fig. 2). Although
the amphora was heavily encrusted with marine growth, precluding identification, the
amphora may be dated to the Cl or Hel periods.
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The 2006 fieldwork season concludes the Persian War Shipwreck Survey. In previous
years we surveyed the coastlines of the Athos peninsula, the northern shores (Magnesia)
of the Artemision Channel and the southeastern coast of Euboea, which is generally
identified with the ‘Hollows of Euboea.” Thus, the Survey has examined—albeit small—
portions of all the locations in which Herodotus places fleet losses, with the notable
exception of Salamis. Unfortunately, the Salaminian channel is unavailable for research
as it has served as Athens sewage dumping ground for decades and because it remains a
particularly active waterway. For further information, please visit the PWSS website at
(http://nautarch.tamu.edu/pwss/homepage/).
Wachsmann: Persian War Shipwreck Survey (2006)
CAPTIONS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS
1. An amphora in situ. Photo: D. Davis.
2. Amphora raised from the site. Photo: D. Davis.
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