The Late Antique "Church Wreck" at Marzamemi, Sicily

Mon. Sep. 18 04:00 PM - Mon. Sep. 18 05:30 PM

The University of Winnipeg Department of Classics presents the Classical Association of Canada Western Lecture Tour

Monday, September 18

4:00-5:30pm

MAN 3M69

First explored by Gerhard Kapitän in the 1960s, the 6th-century CE 'church wreck' was lost while carrying perhaps 100 or more tons of prefabricated architectural elements intended to decorate a church in the late imperial west. Recent fiieldwork, however, has yielded finds that transform our understanding of this wreck and its historical context. Newly discovered columns, capitals, bases, and other decorative materials suggest more complex and multilateral artistic and patronage networks. A secondary cargo of eastern Mediterranean amphoras as well as remains of the ship and its sailors reveal the commercial web in which this final journey took place. These recent finds offer a new window into the people, goods, and processes that tied together the Mediterranean during a transformative period at the end of the Roman world.

Elizabeth S. Greene is Professor in the Department of Classics and Archaeology at Brock University and President of the Archaeological Institute of America. A maritime archaeologist researching trade and economic networks across the Mediterranean, she has directed the excavation of shipwrecks and harbor sites off the Turkish coast and along the coast of southeast Sicily. She is committed to advocacy for the preservation of heritage on land and underwater and serves as a representative to the UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage Expert Database, and a Cultural Property Expert on Call for the FBI's Art Crime Team. Recent research and community engagement efforts highlight connections between ancient seafaring and contemporary dialogs on migration, displacement, sustainability, and the environment.