ROMANS IN THE AMERICAS

Ancient Amphorae at the Bottom of the Sea

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

As a youngster did you learn the rhyme, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue?” Despite what the rhyme taught us, we now know that Columbus was most likely not the first to set foot on the American continents. Believers in pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact propose interaction between indigenous peoples of the Americas who settled the Americas before 10,000 BC, and peoples of other continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, or Oceania), which occurred centuries before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492.

CLAIMS OF PRE-COLUMBIAN CONTACT

Many such contacts have been proposed, based on historical accounts, archaeological finds, and cultural comparisons. However, claims of such contacts are controversial and much debated, due in part to the ambiguous or circumstantial evidence cited by proponents.

The scientific responses to most claims range from serious consideration in peer-reviewed publications to a quick dismissal. Despite the barrage of negativity, believers continue to press their claims. One of the most famous, Thor Heyerdahl, sailed 3,770 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean on his self-built raft, the Kon-Tiki, from South America to the Tuamotu Islands in 1947. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between apparently separate cultures.

IS NEWFOUNDLAND ACTUALLY VINLAND?

Even though journeys to North America are supported by literary, historical and archaeological evidence, only one instance of pre-Columbian European contact – the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada c. 1000 AD – is accepted by scholars as demonstrated.

In 1961, archaeologists Helge and Anne Ingstad uncovered the remains of a Norse settlement at the L'Anse aux Meadows archaeological site on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland, Canada. A connection is frequently drawn between L'Anse aux Meadows and the Vinland sagas. These are written versions of older oral histories that recount the temporary settlement of an area to the west of Greenland, called Vinland, led by a Norse explorer, Leif Erikson. It is possible that Vinland may have been Newfoundland. Finds on Baffin Island suggest a Norse presence there after L'Anse aux Meadows was abandoned.  

HENRY SINCLAIR’S 14^TH CENTURY VOYAGE

But there is other tempting evidence. People claim that carvings in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland depict Indian corn, or maize. Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and feudal baron of Roslin (1345 –1400) was a Scottish nobleman. He is remembered because of the legend that he took part in explorations of Greenland and North America almost 100 years before Christopher Columbus. William Sinclair, Henry’s grandson and 1^st Earl of Caithness, built the Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, Scotland in the mid 15^th Century. Maize was unknown in Europe at the time and not cultivated there until hundreds of years later. This would seem to prove that Henry Sinclair, travelled to the Americas and returned with ears of corn. Like everything in this field, this conclusion is not without controversy. Others interpret the carvings as stylized depictions of wheat, strawberries or lilies.

MADOC IN THE 12^TH CENTURY

 According to British legend, Madoc, a prince from Wales, explored the Americas as early as 1170. While most scholars consider this legend to be untrue, it was used as justification for British claims to the Americas, based on the notion of a Briton arriving before other European nationalities. Local legend holds that Devil's Backbone, a rock formation near Louisville, Kentucky, was used as a citadel by Madoc and his companions. A memorial tablet erected at Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay, Alabama reads: "In memory of Prince Madog, a Welsh explorer, who landed on the shores of Mobile Bay in 1170 and left behind, with the Indians, the Welsh language." The Mandan tribe of North Dakota were said to be Welsh-speaking.

WHAT IF ROMANS ARRIVED 1000 YEARS EARLIER?

Yes, you read that correctly. Perhaps it’s not as preposterous as it sounds at first glance. We know that the Romans traveled to most of modern Europe. They also sailed from North Africa to India and conducted trade with China on what came to be called The Silk Road.

Let’s start with a recent find and work backwards. The photo illustrates what is known as the Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head. Made of terracotta, it was probably part of a larger figurine. It was discovered in 1933 in the Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca zone in the Toluca Valley, about 40 miles southwest of Mexico City. Because the head appears to be similar in style to artifacts of Roman origin, some believe that it is evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between Rome and America.

An assessment of the case in 2001 by Romeo H. Hristov of the University of New Mexico and Santiago Genovés T. of the National Autonomous University of Mexico made the hypothesis of Roman origin –among other possibilities– applicable. The identification of the head as Roman work from the II-III century A.D. has been further confirmed by Bernard Andreae, a director emeritus of the German Institute of Archaeology in Rome, Italy. According to Andreae, “the head is without doubt Roman, and the lab analysis has confirmed that it is ancient. A stylistic examination tells us more precisely that it is a Roman work from around the II century A.D., and the hairstyle and the shape of the beard presents the typical traits of the Severian Emperor’s period [193-235 A.D.], in the fashion of that epoch.”

Ancient Roman Ship

ANCIENT TRAVELS

Such an event has been made more believable by the discovery of evidences of travels by the Romans, Phoenicians and Berbers as early as the 6^th or 5^th Century BC to Tenerife and Lanzarote in the Canaries, and of a 1^st Century BC Roman settlement on Lanzarote Island. Lanzarote was probably the first Canary Island to be settled and the Phoenicians may have settled there around 1100 BC, though no material evidence survives. The Greek writers and philosophers Herodotus, Plato, and Plutarch described the garden of the Hesperides, a mythic orchard at the far west of the world, which many identify as the Canaries.

A WRITTEN RECORD FROM PLINY

The first known record comes from Pliny the Elder where he describes in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia, an expedition to the Canary Islands. The names of five islands (then called Insulae Fortunatae, the Fortunate Isles) were recorded as Canaria (Gran Canary), Ninguaria (Tenerife), Junonia Major (La Palma), Plivalia (El Hierro) and Capraria (La Gomera). Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the two easternmost Canary Islands, were only mentioned as the archipelago of the purple islands. The Egyptian astronomer and geographer Ptolemy calculated their precise locations. Following the fall of the Roman Empire, the Canary Islands were ignored for the next 500 years.

COMING TO AMERICA

There is a large submerged rock in Guanabara Bay near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Lying just three feet beneath the water’s surface, it is called Xareu Rock after the fish that congregate there. In the late 1970’s, a local fisherman using nets around Xareu Rock kept catching some large —3’ tall— heavy earthen jars. He mistakenly assumed they were macumba jars, which are used in voodoo ceremonies and then thrown into the sea. So, as the jars were hauled up, he smashed them with a hammer and tossed the pieces back into the water to prevent them from snagging his nets.

Eventually a scuba diver spear fishing around Xareu Rock found eight of the jars. He took them home and began selling them to tourists. He only had two left by the time Brazilian police stopped him and confiscated the jars. Archaeologists immediately identified them as Roman amphorae from the 1^st Century BC.  

Ex-marine, underwater explorer and treasure-hunter Robert Marx claims to have discovered a long-forgotten Roman shipwreck in the Bay of Guanabara. It appears to have hit the rock at a high speed, spilt apart and sank in 75 feet of water. While diving to examine the wreckage, Marx removed parts of the ancient amphorae. They eventually ended up in the hands of Dr. Elizabeth Lyding Will, an expert on Roman amphorae. She says they’re similar in shape to jars produced in kilns at Kouass, on the west coast of Morocco.

The Institute of Archaeology of the University of London performed thermo-luminescence testing, which is a more accurate dating process than Carbon 14 dating, and set the jar’s manufacture date around 19 B.C. Many more amphorae and some marble objects were recovered, as well as a Roman bronze fibula, a clasp device used to fasten a coat or shirt.

From the Salt Mines to Rio de Janeiro

PASS THE SALT, PLEASE

This is where the story gets really interesting, and it all starts with salt. Salt was one of the most valuable commodities around the beginning of the 1^st Century. It represented the only reliable way to preserve fresh meat and fish. In fact, salt was so valuable that at times it was used in place of money. The word salary derives from the practice of paying laborers in salt. And from that, came the familiar term he’s not worth his salt.

 

The Romans had a large salt production facility on Ilha do Sal, Salt Island, in the Cape Verde Islands, which are 350 miles off the coast of West Africa. The map illustrates the general path a ship would take to go from there to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil… a trip of about 2900 nautical miles. If that seems prohibitive, consider that Roman ships regularly sailed from Antioch of Syria to Londinium in Britannia, a distance of about 1,600 nautical miles. Trade vessels also left Egypt headed for India and returned laden with spices. This represents a round trip of 4,600 nautical miles. Remember also, Heyerdahl sailed 3,770 nautical miles on a raft!

Rotation of the North Atlantic and South Atlantic Currents

HOT WINDS AND CIRCULAR OCEAN CURRENTS

Salt Island is located directly in the path of the hot, dry winds of the Sahara Desert, which can easily blow 60 knots from the east. It is believed that this Roman merchant vessel was heading for Salt Island to pick up a load of salt and to provision the local army garrison when it was caught in a fierce Sahara storm. Roman ships were clumsy by modem standards and would have no choice but to lower their sails and to run with the winds to avoid capsizing. The Sahara winds can blow continuously for many days. The ship would have been driven south into the Guinea Currents that could have moved it into the circular flow of the North Atlantic current. In the equatorial regions this southern flow intersects with the rising South Atlantic current. Passing from one to the other, the Roman sailors would have found themselves being pushed south and west toward Brazil. They would, of course, have no way of navigating since the southern constellations would have been unfamiliar to them.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

Was this a one-time event that ended in tragedy? Or, did these early sailors use it as an opportunity to make contacts, in which case the sunken ship was not the first Roman ship to make the voyage. For all we know, they might have been on the first stages of a regular trade run. And, when they didn’t return, this new venture was abandoned.

What about the men aboard? Were there survivors? Did they make their way ashore, make contact with the natives, and live happily ever after? As tantalizing as it may be to speculate on the possibilities, the answers to these and other questions have been lost to history.

 Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

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MEETING ROME'S NEED FOR OLIVE OIL

A Supertanker Loaded With Oil Crosses the Ocean

Hello My Friend and Welcome. 

In our industrialized world a constant flow of oil is required to meet increasing demand. The appetite of the United States for oil is unprecedented in human history a recent newspaper headline said. Perhaps. 

The world, it seems, runs on oil. Our lifestyle and economic processes have become so oil dependent that it’s unthinkable to imagine life without it. And when a powerful nation’s demand for oil outstrips its supply, importing additional supplies seems to be the only viable solution. Like all trade goods oil flows from the haves to have-nots and, given the distances involved, most often moves by ship. 

Many in the United States are rightly concerned by our increasing dependence upon foreign oil. A recent study blamed rising oil imports for our widening trade deficit. The United States is the largest oil importer in the world and much of this oil comes from the Middle East, an politically unstable region.

NOT ABOUT PETROLEUM

However, this post is not about the United States’ appetite for petroleum. Rather, we’re going back in time nearly two millennia to examine another time when another nation was equally dependent upon foreign oil coming from, among other places, the Middle East. Today we’ll examine the elaborate system of oil importation Rome developed to meet their population’s insatiable demand for…Olive Oil.

The Roman World used olive oil for cooking and fueling their lamps, as a cleaning agent in their baths, as an emollient for grooming and conditioning the skin and hair, as well as a healing balm. Researchers have been examining a dump in Rome hidden beneath earth and grass. Nearly a mile in circumference and known as the Monte Testaccio, it been found to contain a 150-foot high mountain of broken amphorae. Though it’s been covered over for centuries, at one time someone clearly knew what was there. Its name is a combination of the Latin testa and the Italian cocci, both of which mean potshard.

Digging into the Mountain of Shards

During the Middle Ages vintners in Rome discovered that the interior of Monte Testaccio remained remarkably cool throughout the year and dug caves into the mountain to store and age their wines. Some imagined it to be the site where debris was dumped following the great fire of Rome during Nero’s rule. Others guessed that the shards were from discarded funerary urns that had once filled columbaria along the nearby Via Ostiense. Regardless, the area provided a seemingly unlimited supply of tiles to patch roofs and souvenirs for tourists.

FINALLY CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED

Only in the last 100 years was it finally recognized for what it was, a dump dating back to the reign of Caesar Augustus. But even then, the amphorae were imagined to have contained wine. Archeologists have only recently unraveled the process behind how this vast mountain of shards was formed. Their digs discovered that a wall of amphorae filled with pieces from other broken amphorae was built to contain the growing mound of shards. When they reached the top of the wall, a new wall was added and the process repeated. The ancient Romans periodically swathed the entire thing in a coating of lime to control the smell of rancid oil.

The importation of olive oil, food products, metals and other essentials began early in Augustus’ reign. Keep in mind that Octavian, later to be known as Augustus, began his reign in 31BC. He was only the second ruler of the nascient Roman Empire which his predecessor, Julius Caesar, founded a mere thirteen years earlier.

The Intact Neck of a Dressel 20 Amphora

The majority of the amphorae found at Monte Testaccio came from the Roman province of Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal) and are of a style archaeologically known as a Dressel 20. The remainder came from what we now call the Middle East. A Dressel 20 is a squat, round amphora that resists tipping. They would have been ideally suited to riding in a ship’s cargo hold. Imagine rows of ships docking in the Roman harbor of Portus, each one filled with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these amphorae. Shipwrecks have been discovered in the region with full loads of Dressel 20’s.

DEALING WITH THE OVERFLOW

From the ships, these large amphorae would have been transported to Imperial warehouses where the oil was transferred into smaller containers for distribution throughout the city. The empties were probably taken to Monte Testaccio by mule and discarded. Like New York City, which temporarily suspended its plastic bottle recycling program due to high cost, Rome undoubtedly found it cheaper to throw away the empties rather than recycle them.

Moving the oil in amphora provided a system of inventory control and checks and balances. Their unglazed clay surface is easy to write on. In addition to incised codes put on before firing, many show tituli picti—words, names and numbers used to track their movement through the distribution channels.  

MAINTAINING A BALANCE OF POWER

Augustus understood that to remain in power he must have the support of the army and the plebians, the ordinary man in the street. The population of First Century Rome ranged somewhere between 600,000 to a 1,000,000 people. He bought their loyalty with a welfare system that fed the poor, and controlled the price of grain and oil for everyone else. A century later, the Roman poet and satirist, Juvenal, penned his famous line about the Roman emperors buying tranquility with “bread and circuses.”  

This system of growing, harvesting, pressing and distribution seems to have operated in a uniquely Roman way. Unlike other empires that became heavily bureaucratic or depended upon great trade routes, Rome utilized a system of small suppliers who were well controlled and monitored. Proof again that individual initiative is always more efficient than centralized planning. 

 

On Thursday we’ll add our monthly link to the Christian Writer’s Blog Chain. This month’s key word is nurture. 

 

Until then, we wish you Peace and Blessings. 

 

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ROMAN MERCHANT SHIPS — WARHORSES of the ANCIENT WORLD

Divers Gather Amphorae from a Shipwreck

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

At its peak, the Roman Empire completely encircled the Mediterranean Sea, which First Century Romans conveniently called Mare Nostrum, or Our Sea. Not only did its waters provide fish to feed citizens from Mauritania to Hispania, it also facilitated inter-Empire trade between the various Provinces. Rome had a vigorous, far-flung, and diverse trade network that extended far beyond their borders to India and China.  

ROME’S MERCHANT MARINE

Roman merchants moved all sorts of goods and foodstuffs by sea. Commercial vessels were known by a variety of names, such as corbita, gaulus, ponto, or cladivata, depending upon the region. Overall, the ships demonstrated great uniformity in design. This would be expected given the level of maritime commerce within the Empire. Innovations and improvements were quickly shared and disseminated within the industry.

Museum Reproduction of a Roman Corbita

LEARNING FROM DISASTER

Our knowledge of Roman shipping comes from two sources, ancient drawings and illustrations, and shipwrecks. The large number of shipwrecks found around the Mediterranean illustrates not only the quantity of shipping that took place, but the perils of traveling by sea in earlier times. We can verify this based on the detailed account in Acts of the Apostles of Paul being shipwrecked on his way to Rome. Depending on size and intended use of the ship, the hull shape could be either symmetrical or asymmetrical. In the first case the stern and bow were essentially identical. In the asymmetric version, the bow was located at a lower height. The bow was sometimes concave, due to the presence of a cutwater. These were added not as a ram, but a structural modification to improve the vessel’s sailing ability.  

WIND-POWERED TRANSPORT

Unlike the warships that utilized rowers to quickly maneuver and propel the ship, merchant ships relied exclusively upon sails for propulsion. The illustrations I’ve used show a single-masted ship, however as the vessel’s size and tonnage increased they added a second and even a third mast. The sails were square and controlled by a complex system of rigging. Many ships also featured a smaller sail, called a supparum, on the bow which aided steering.

BIG, BIGGER, AND BIGGEST

The size of Roman ships often surprises people. On the low end were ships designed for the grain trade, which carried 10,000 modii of grain…a little over 75 tons. These were the workhorses of the fleet running regular routes to nearby Provinces to load wheat or barley. A government contract provided the ship owner with a steady source of income as his ship traced and retraced the same path back and forth between Rome and Sicily, Alexandria, or other export points.  

Medium-sized ships were used extensively for the olive oil trade and were measured by the number of amphorae they could hold. A 3,000-amphora vessel had almost three times the capacity of the smaller ships, carrying 165,000 tons. The size of these ships is confirmed by numerous underwater explorations of ship wrecks. In addition to the specialized use previously mentioned, small and medium-sized ships hauled general merchandise as well. Metal ores and other raw materials, spices, silk and other trade goods moved with surprising regularity. For instance, in the First Century 120 ships a year set sail for India from the Red Sea port of Berenike. Their return cargo consisted of pepper which was moved by barge to Alexandria, and from there to Rome on still more ships. 

The Roman fleet also had higher tonnage vessels. The hull of the Madrague de Giens, that floundered off Gaul (France) in the First Century BC, was 130 feet long with an estimated capacity of 440 tons. In the early years of the Roman Empire, the muriophorio, 10,000-amphora carriers carrying 550 tons were the largest ships afloat. The grain trade also utilized some 50,000 modii vessels which hauled 365 tons. The size and capacity of these ships was not exceeded in the Mediterranean until the Sixteenth Century.  

Yet the Roman world saw a few ships larger even than these. For instance, the carrier that Caligula built to transport an obelisk from Egypt to Rome had a capacity of 1450 tons. After it sank, it was used to construct the lighthouse at the port of Claudius. Various Emperors, Cleopatra among them, built barge-like floating palaces. Though designed for limited use in safe waters, some of them were nearly 250 feet in length.

The Merchant Ship Afloat

STANDARDIZED SHIPPING CONTAINERS

For olive oil and many other commodities, amphorae became the standard shipping container. So many amphorae arrived in Rome that disposing of the empties eventually created a problem. In 1999 an underwater search for a lost Israeli submarine turned up an ancient shipwreck at a depth of 10,000 feet. The ship came to rest on its keel then gradually tipped to one side. The weight of the amphorae in its hold caused the hull to lose structural integrity, spreading an oval mound of amphorae approximately 80 feet long and 50 feet wide on the seafloor. It is estimated that there are 2,500 amphorae in the pile. Based on its location halfway between Rhodes and Alexandria and the Greek wine it carried, archeologists surmise the ship was headed for Egypt.  

When hearing the word amphora, many people think of an urn-like container. In fact, amphora is also a unit of measurement. An amphora equaled 3 modius. Since a modius contains 2 ½ gallons of liquid, each amphora on the seafloor represents 7½ gallons. So, if the 2,500 intact amphorae comprised the entire cargo, the ship was carrying 18,750 gallons, or 150,000 pounds, of wine when it sank.  

Like most colonizing powers, over time Rome grew dependent upon the influx of goods from the Provinces to survive. Each year 60,000,000 modii of grain arrived in Rome. Assuming each vessel contained 50,000 modii, that works out to 1,200 shipments of grain annually. Navigation was not the year-round affair that it is today. Every winter saw the arrival of the mare clausum or closed sea that lasted four months. Subtracting this period of inactivity computes to an average of five large grain ships arriving every navigable day. It has also been calculated that seven or more large shiploads of olive oil docked each month. To those must be added the ships that transported wine, fish products, spices, cloth, ore, marble and stone blocks. There were also shiploads of wild animals arriving from Africa and elsewhere for use in the games.    

All of this merchandise directed at Rome had to come through the Port of Ostia and later the Port of Claudius. Merchant ships which exceeded a 3000-amphora capacity, about 165 tons, could not travel upstream. They were obliged to anchor at sea and unload their cargo onto smaller vessels which shuttled between the ships and the river entrance to the Port of Ostia. These operations were lengthy and dangerous operations. The coastline in that area was inhospitable, low, and sandy.  

Next time we’ll examine the ancient method of contemplative study of the scriptures known as Lectio Divina.

Until then, we wish you Peace and Blessings

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