Shipwrecks play a fundamental role in reconstructing the trade routes of goods and vessels. They can be considered as “interrupted voyages” between production and consumption sites. The shipwrecks under review were loaded of goods and amphorae produced in the Southern Mediterranean area. They mainly date back to the Roman period, although some of them are of diverse periods.

Thanks to the collaboration with the Regional Archaeological Museum “ L. Bernabò Brea” of Lipari, an innovative study is being conducted on the cargoes of three Aeolian shipwrecks, Filicudi F, Secca di Capistello (late 4th – early 3rd century BC) and Filicudi A (first half of the 2nd century BC). The shipwrecks, whose provenance is unknown, document the trade of goods and containers in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea over different periods. The cargoes have been drawn, photographed and the stamped amphorae have been sampled for the first time to carry out mineralogical analyses, in order to determine their origins comparing test results with the existing data from production sites. The archaeological data, together with the epigraphic and archaeometric ones, improve our knowledge on the story of these important shipwrecks and the gathering of new information about the economic history of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea.

Further investigations are on-going on shipwrecks from Tuscany, Southern France and Spain, in partnership with different Institutions and Research Centres.