Mazarrón 1, 550–500 BC
Country: Spain
Place: Playa de la Isla, Mazarrón (Murcia), about 50 m from the beach, at a depth of 2.5 m
Coordinates (approximate): 37.56, -1.26
Type: Small Phoenician boat
Identified: No
Dated: Phoenician period. Dated by the excavators to c. 650 BC; the author considers a broader date of 550–500 BC more prudent (see Mazarrón 2).
Beam: Unknown; the remains are 1.3 m wide.
Keel Length: Unknown; 3.98 m preserved.
Length Overall: Unknown; the remains are c. 5 m long.
Number of Masts: Unknown; mortises for a mast step are present in the keel.
History of the wreck
The underwater archaeological site called Playa de la Isla, off the municipality of Mazarrón (Murcia, Spain), near the port of the same name, was located in 1988 during underwater archaeological surveys carried out by the C.N.I.A.S. During that work, pottery of Phoenician cultural attribution was recorded on the surface of the seabed. The following year, about 50 m from the beach and at a depth of 2.5 m, a timber structure belonging to a wreck was located, though it was not studied in depth (Santos et al. 1999: 196). In 1991 and 1992 brief work was carried out at the site, recovering fragments of R-1 amphorae, and then the project called Nave Fenicia was carried out between 1993 and 1995, excavating the wreck, which came to be called Mazarrón 1.
Boat 1 of Mazarrón was excavated in the spring of 1995 by Negueruela, director of the M.N.A.M. (1995: 165). An underwater mould was made of it, and it was then raised and taken to the museum.1 During the project the Mazarrón 2 was also located, likewise of Phoenician cultural attribution and similar in character to the first (Negueruela 1995, 2000, 2000b, 2000c, 2004; Negueruela et al. 1995, 2000).
Description of the site
The Mazarrón 1 was covered by a thin layer of fine sand, lying interstratified in dead Posidonia oceanica matte.2 The complete surviving remains are c. 5 m long and 1.3 m wide (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Plan of the Mazarrón 1 (after Negueruela 1995).
Cargo
No pottery or associated cargo was found,3 only tied bundles of branches used as dunnage for the cargo.
Ballast
Not reported.
Anchors
Not reported.
Guns
Not applicable.
Iron concretions
Not applicable.
Hull Remains
The keel, the garboard strake and fragments of eight further strakes, four branch frames, a beam and some loose fragments of planking and gunwale survive. The whole inside of the hull was coated with rosin (colophony) liquefied by heat.
Keel, keelson and mast step
The keel, of approximately rectangular section, 10 cm high and up to 17 cm wide (wider than it is high), is made of cypress (Cupressus sp.) and is preserved over 3.98 m. At one end it has notches for the joint with the stem or sternpost, apparently unrelated to the trait de Jupiter scarfs characteristic of Graeco-Roman construction (Dell’Amico 2002: 97), so it would really be the hood ends of the planks (atunes) that held this joint together. The width of the keel is not completely regular, being slightly greater in the central part than at the ends. It has six mortises in its upper face, presumably to house a mast step that has not survived. Like Uluburun, it has no worked rabbet, and the joint with the garboard strake is made by punicana coagmenta, both tenons and pegs being of olive (Olea europaea L.).
Frames
The framing, if it can be so called given its fragility, consists of four branches of almost cylindrical section, of fig (Ficus carica L.), lashed to the strakes by external lashings through four holes drilled perpendicular to the hull (at 90°), through which a plant-fibre cord was passed (Figure 2): a very simple technique with no other known examples. They have no structural function, serving only to improve the torsional strength of the hull, and give no indication of any sequence in the construction of the hull. This has allowed interpretations by Guerrero, which the author shares (Guerrero 2008: 105–108).
Figure 2. Basic diagram of the joint between strakes and of the frame lashing in the Mazarrón 1 (after Negueruela).
Planking
The garboard strake and the other strakes are of resinous wood (Pinus halepensis), the garboard strake having a particular shape. It is straight on the edge in contact with the keel but has a half-moon shape on the opposite side, ending at the same point as the keel and creating, through the second strake, the angle needed for the strakes to converge at the stem (or sternpost), a technique particular to this boat. From it, the fragments of eight other strakes survive, laid edge to edge, covering a total area of 1.80 m². Some of them (nos. 3, 4, 6 and 8) have very open-angled bevelled scarfs joining several lengths in the same strake; notably, the small strake 4 has one of these angled scarfs in the opposite direction to the others.
Without archaeological parallel,4 the edges of the strakes in contact with each other, besides being joined by mortises and tenons, have a small recess or bevel, like a rabbet, on the upper faces of their edges, together with a series of holes, allowing a thread to be laid along the seam and then fastened by simple stitching5 using these holes, in order to improve watertightness (Figure 2). Where the planking strakes converge at the stem or sternpost, sewing is used, with a simple technique different from the Greek one.6 Strake no. 8, wider than the others, is reused, since it has a series of pegs and mortises unrelated to the adjacent strakes (Negueruela 1995: 167).
Ceiling, thick stuff, and wales
Without structural connection to the keel and the nine strakes, some further fragments of planking strakes and of the gunwale were recovered, as well as a beam (thwart) with a structural function, which would have rested on the planking strakes by means of a dovetailed end; this has been interpreted as a reinforcement against lateral hogging (Guerrero 2008: 104).
Caulking
The whole inside of the hull was coated with rosin (colophony) liquefied by heat. The seams were sealed by a thread laid in a small bevel along the edges and stitched through holes (see Planking).
Size and scantlings
A small boat: the remains measure c. 5 × 1.3 m, with a keel of 17 × 10 cm and very light frames made of branches.
Table 1. Scantling of the timber remains of the Mazarrón 1 Shipwreck
| Timber | Sided [cm] | Molded [cm] |
| Keel | 17 (max.) | 10 |
| Keelson | – | – |
| Maststep Mortise | – – | – – |
| Buttresses | – | – |
| Frames (branches) | – | – |
| Futtocks | – | – |
| Room-and-space At central frames | – | |
| Planking | – | – |
| Ceiling | – | – |
| Main mast Ø Chock | – – | – – |
The keel is preserved over 3.98 m and has six mortises in its upper face, presumably for a mast step.
Wood
Keel: cypress (Cupressus sp.). Planking: Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis). Tenons and pegs: olive (Olea europaea L.). Frames: fig (Ficus carica L.).
Bibliography
Dell’Amico, P. 2002. Costruzione navale antica. Proposta per una sistematizzazione. Albenga: Edizioni del Delfino Moro.
Guerrero, V. M. 2008. Las naves de Kerné (II). Navegando por el Atlántico durante la protohistoria y la antigüedad. In J. L. González, F. López and V. Peña (eds), Los fenicios y el Atlántico. IV Coloquio del CEFYP, 69–142. Madrid.
Negueruela, I. 1995. Excavaciones arqueológicas subacuáticas realizadas por el Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Submarinas en el yacimiento de la Playa de la Isla (Mazarrón). Memoria de la campaña de 1995. Memorias de Arqueología de la Región de Murcia 10: 162–180. Murcia.
Negueruela, I. 2000. Protection of shipwrecks: the experience of the Spanish National Maritime Archaeological Museum. In Underwater Archaeology and Coastal Management. Focus on Alexandria (Alexandria 1997), 111–116. Paris: UNESCO.
Negueruela, I. 2000b. Managing the maritime heritage: the National Maritime Archaeological Museum and National Centre for Underwater Research, Cartagena, Spain. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 29.2: 179–198.
Negueruela, I. 2000c. Descubrimiento de dos barcos fenicios. In Actas del IV Congreso Internacional de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos (Cádiz 1995), vol. 4, 1671–1679. Cádiz.
Negueruela, I. 2004. Hacia la comprensión de la construcción naval fenicia según el barco “Mazarrón-2” del siglo VII a.C. In V. Peña, A. Mederos and C. G. Wagner (eds), La navegación fenicia. Tecnología naval y derroteros, 227–278. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos.
Negueruela, I., Pinedo, J., Gómez, M., Miñano, A., Arellano, I. and Barba, J. S. 1995. Seventh-century BC Phoenician vessel discovered at Playa de la Isla, Mazarrón, Spain. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 24.3: 189–197.
Negueruela, I. et al. 2000. Carta arqueológica subacuática de la Región de Murcia. I: Mazarrón. Campaña de 1999. In XI Jornadas de Patrimonio Histórico y Arqueología Regional, 21–23. Murcia.
Santos, J., Negueruela, I., Perera, J., Pinedo, J. and Roldán, B. 1999. El pecio de la Playa de la Isla, Puerto de Mazarrón (Murcia). Memorias de Arqueología de la Región de Murcia 8: 196–199. Murcia.
Notes
1 Now ARQUA, where it is part of the permanent collection.
2 Its exposure was apparently due to a change in the marine sedimentary dynamics caused by the construction of a marina next to the site.
3 Given the shallowness of the wreck, it may well have been salvaged in antiquity.
4 Although unrelated in shipbuilding tradition or line of development, it recalls the way of improving the watertightness of the seams between strakes in the ship of Khufu.
5 Unrelated to the Ionian-Massaliote tradition.
6 Based on the author’s observation of some elements of the Mazarrón 1 wreck, part of the permanent collection of the ARQUA museum.