PBS Specials

The Lost Ships of Rome (2010x28)

Air date: Nov 17, 2010

In 2009, archaeologists discovered an underwater graveyard of five Roman shipwrecks off the coast of Ventotene, a small Italian island with a notorious past. It was one of the biggest archaeological finds in recent history. The vessels’ well-preserved cargo indicates that these ships did not break up on the island’s rocks, but instead sank to the seabed intact and upright. They were laden with exotic goods including wine, olive oil, and the ancient delicacy garum; a condiment highly prized among ancient Romans. These sunken treasures are providing researchers with insight into the wreck, how the Romans lived, and Ventotene’s intriguing past. The island served as a vacation resort for Rome’s emperor but it became a kind of ancient Alcatraz when the Emperor Augustus imprisoned his own daughter, Julia, there for adultery, or as more recent research suggests, for political intrigue against her father. This past summer, a team of explorers returned to the site to recover some of the ancient artifacts in hopes of shedding new light on these mysteries.