When a ship sinks, it's like an entire piece of ancient civilization disappearing.

Or perhaps not, because the conditions of the shipwreck and the seabed can, in some cases, allow us to rediscover a world frozen in time. Sometimes, a wreckage preserves its treasures better than an open-air archaeological site.

It's important to consider that a ship is - by definition - a self-contained structure. This explains the cruel allure of shipwrecks: underwater archaeologists, descending among the ghosts of horrific deaths, find not only the cargo but also weapons, lamps, furniture, kitchen utensils, and notes on navigation techniques.

These research efforts are particularly crucial for discovering what goods were imported by a community. This is because, until the dawn of the modern age, over half of shipwrecks occurred in a typical situation: storms and rough seas near shallow waters close to the coasts. And since bad weather could be avoided at the time of departure but not near the destination port, we can conclude that wrecks near ports contain remnants of imported goods.

In the area around Pùnta Palascìa Lighthouse, the sea has preserved extraordinary evidence from the Archaic period, at the dawn of the great colonization of Magna Graecia.

In fact, in 2023, during the construction of the TAP gas pipeline, a shipwreck was discovered at a depth of 780 meters in the Otranto Channel. The ship was carrying materials from Corinth dating back approximately 2700 years. Transport amphorae and other small containers, very similar to other artifacts previously found in Òtranto. This discovery has allowed archaeologists to hypothesize that there was already a stable and prosperous trade route between Otranto and Corinth in the Archaic period.

If this world fascinates you, look for our podcast "The Secret Seas of Puglia": a fiction inspired by the mysteries of shipwrecks to highlight the importance of preserving underwater archaeological heritage.