Headlines last spring announced that a third pleasure-boat built for the Emperor Caligula (r AD 37–41) was about to be recovered from the murky waters of Lake Nemi near Rome. As it turned out, after investigating the facts with the former director of the Museo delle Navi at Nemi, archaeologist Giuseppina Ghini, this was not entirely a matter of ‘much ado about nothing’.
Huge floating palaces were indeed built and used for the entertainment of the decadent emperor Caligula and two of these (measuring 71.30m x 20m and 73m x 24m) had been recovered from the bottom of Lake Nemi, thanks to a brilliant rescue operation in the early 1930s.
Unfortunately those ships were destroyed either by American bombs or vindictive German soldiers who set fire to them in 1944 during the Second World War. Some smaller scale models of the original hulls, and objects salvaged from pillaging and wanton destruction, were later reassembled and re-housed in the specially built Museo delle Navi, on the shores of the circular volcanic lake.
A third imperial ship was, however, believed to be still lying on the bottom of the lake, and this was the subject of the recent hullabaloo. In the event only a small (8m x 2.5m) boat, which might have been used when the first wrecks were lifted out of the waters last century, was located. At the time the water level of the lake (which has no natural outlets) was lowered by 12 metres by complex siphoning and water redistribution.
Analysis of the wood from this small boat is part of a current project undertaken this year that primarily concerns checking the pollution levels in the lake water, as well as using a side scan sonar Klein System 3000 to check for the presence of objects on the bottom of the lake.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July/August 2017 Volume 28 Number 4-Ausgabe von Minerva.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July/August 2017 Volume 28 Number 4-Ausgabe von Minerva.
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Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
ROMAN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT AUGUSTODUNUM
More than 230 graves have been uncovered at a necropolis in the French city of Autun, revealing a diverse mix in burial practices over a period of nearly 200 years, as well as luxury grave goods from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD that highlight the wealth of some of its ancient inhabitants.
SHAPING THE WORLD: SCULPTURE FROM PREHISTORY TO NOW
The sculptor Antony Gormley and the art historian and critic Martin Gayford have been talking about sculpture with each other for 20 years.
Amelia Edwards (1831-1892)
“I am essentially a worker, and a hard worker, and this I have been since my early girlhood.”
THE GREAT BEYOND
The ancient Greeks thought much about the dead – how their remains should be disposed of, how their spirits might be summoned, how malignant they could be if unavenged. Classicist David Stuttard brings us face to face with the Greek dead.
INTO THE VALLEY OF THE QUEENS
The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.
DEIR EL-BAHRI, 1894
Tensions were already high among the archaeologists, surveyors, and artists of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt in 1891 when an eventful dispute arose on Christmas Eve.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
When the Etruscans expanded to the south and the vast plains of Campania, they found a land of cultural connections and confrontations, as luxurious grave goods found across the region reveal. An exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples sheds light on these ancient Italians at the frontier. Paolo Giulierini, director of the museum, is our guide.
CUZCO 'CENTRE AND HEAD OF ALL THE LAND'
Cuzco was the heart of the vast Inca empire, but all changed in the 16th century when the capital was conquered by Spanish invaders. Michael J Schreffler investigates the Inca city, and how it went from the centre of one empire to the periphery of another.
A STUDY IN PURPLE
A tiny speck of purple paint from the 2nd century AD may yield clues to how ancient artists created the extraordinary portrait panels that accompanied mummified bodies into the afterlife.
Rome In The 8th Century: A History In Art
John Osborne CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, £75 HARDBACK - ISBN 978-1108834582
