Forli, for Ulysses exhibition there is also the world's oldest Greek ship on public display for the first time

One of the protagonists of the ongoing exhibition at the San Domenico Museums in Forlì until June 21, 2020, entitled Ulysses. Art and Myth, the exhibition curated by Fernando Mazzocca, Francesco Leone, Fabrizio Paolucci and Paola Refice that intends to investigate the Homeric hero and the various artistic interpretations of the myth that have followed one another over the centuries, is certainly, as we anticipated in aninterview with curator Francesco Leone, the Greek ship, better known as the ship of Gela. It is the oldest in the world that has been preserved and is being exhibited to the public for the first time at the major exhibition in Forlì.

The ancient vessel is known as the ship of Gela from the place where it was found in 1988, namely five meters deep in the waters of Contrada Bulala, off the coast of Gela. The find was exceptional in that it was the first archaic Greek ship to be discovered in the seabed of Sicily, but it was neither the only one nor the last: in fact, there were two others found in this area in the 2000s. In fact, Sebastiano Tusa of the Sicily Region’s Superintendence of the Sea had said that presumably in the present Bulala locality was the sea port of the ancient Doric colony of Gela.

However, the ship discovered in 1988 by two local divers can be dated to the period between the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.: its structural features as a merchant ship had been preserved in good condition, although about twenty years of investigations were needed to bring to light the wooden structure of the vessel and its cargo. The ship has not been preserved in its entirety: the stern wheel, the bulwark, and the mainmasters have come down to us, and the recovered parts reach a maximum length of 17 meters and a maximum width of 4.30 meters; however, the missing part of the keel has never been identified. The planks of the outer supporting structure, mostly made of conifers and broadleaf trees, were joined together by means of vegetable ropes in a technique known as “shell.”

Of the cargo found in the seabed of Sicily, 86 ingots of orichalc (a precious metal alloy that harkens back to the myth of Atlantis), a wicker basket and a bronze tripod are part of the cargo. The orichalc ingots also represent a unique discovery in the world archaeological scene, not only because similar materials have never been found in other excavation contexts, but also because the finds known so far and forged with this alloy in antiquity are very rare.

The vessel was thus carrying valuable goods: a fact that allows us to speculate that the merchant vessel sailed short stretches of the Sicilian and Magna Graecia coasts, making numerous stops in between.

Shortly after the discovery in 1988 the first excavation campaign was carried out, conducted by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of Caltanissetta, thanks to which the location of the ship and its constitution was precisely identified. However, recovery operations began in 2003 and concluded in 2008: everything that had been found was sent to the Mary Rose Archaelogical Service in Portsmouth and subjected to restoration.

The ship constitutes one of the most significant underwater finds of the archaeological heritage of the Ancient Mediterranean, and allows us to learn not only about the characteristics of the vessel, but also about the history of navigation, as well as the shipbuilding techniques used by Greek shipbuilders.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the oldest ship in the world is on display in the Church of St. James so that we can see an extraordinary testimony up close, not only in terms of the particular structure characteristic of antiquity, but also the goods that on that ill-fated voyage never reached their destination.

Forli, for Ulysses exhibition there is also the world's oldest Greek ship on public display for the first time

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