The Xlendi Bay shipwreck (Gozo, Malta): a petrographic and typological study of an archaic ceramic cargo

Abstract

Abstract An underwater survey off the southwest coast of the island of Gozo revealed a well-preserved shipwreck 110 m below the surface. The site belonged to a previously unknown wreck with a cargo of volcanic millstones and ceramic amphorae dating to the 7th century BC. This article presents the first results of thin-section analysis taken from the pottery objects, and concludes that the ship was carrying a heterogeneous cargo of amphora-borne goods from the Maltese islands, North Tunisia, and possibly Sicily, making it the earliest, known shipwreck in the central Mediterranean; and provides the earliest evidence for Maltese external trade in the central Mediterranean.