2000 year old fermented fish sauce....

[Guest guest]

They don't mention that it was fermented in the article, but we all know the

story...

http://news./s/ap/20061114/ap_on_re_eu/spain_roman_shipwreck_6

Early Roman shipwreck carried fish sauce

By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer Mon Nov 13, 10:56 PM ET

MADRID, Spain - A shipwrecked first-century vessel carrying delicacies to

the richest palates of the Roman Empire has proved a dazzling find, with

nearly 2,000-year-old fish bones still nestling inside clay jars,

archaeolgists said Monday.

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Boaters found its cargo of hundreds of amphoras in 2000 when their anchor

got tangled with one of the two-handled jars.

After years of arranging financing and crews, exploration of the site a mile

off the coast of Alicante in southeast Spain began in July, said Carles de

, a co-director of the project, who works for the Valencia regional

government.

The ship, estimated to be 100 feet long with a capacity for around 400 tons

of cargo, is twice the size of most other Roman shipwrecks found in the

Mediterranean, de said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Its cargo of an estimated 1,500 well-preserved clay amphoras was used in

this case to hold fish sauce — a prized condiment for wealthy Romans, he

said.

For nearly 2,000 years, the 3-foot-tall amphoras lay undisturbed except for

the occasional octopus that would pry one open, breaking the

ceramic-and-mortar seal in search of food or shelter.

Besides the size of the ship and good condition of its cargo, the site is

also important because it is so easily accessible — in just 80 feet of water

about a mile from the coast. Other wrecks are so deep they cannot be

examined by scuba divers.

" I am not going to say it was on the beach, but almost, " said de , who

was among the first divers to examine the shipwreck in 2000.

" We knew it was an important find but had no real idea until now, " he said.

" It is an exceptional find. "

The last time a ship of this size and quality emerged was in 1985 off

Corsica, he said.

Nieto, director of the Center for Underwater Archaeology of Catalonia

and not related to this project, also called it immensely important because

of the good condition of the cargo. No other Roman shipwreck is currently

under study in the Mediterranean, he added.

" For archaeologists, a sunken ship is a historic document that tells us

about ancient history and how its economy worked, " Nieto said from

Barcelona. " This ship will contribute a lot. "

This ship probably sank in a storm while sailing back to Rome from Cadiz in

the south of what is now Spain. The storm must have been ferocious because

it is odd for such a vessel to have been so close to shore.

" The crew did not care about the cargo or money or anything. They headed for

land to save their lives, " de said.

De and the other co-director of the project, Franca Cibercchini of the

University of Pisa in Italy, presented their first report on the site at a

marine archaeology conference last week in the town of Gandia, near

Valencia.

When word of the find first spread in 2000, pirate scuba divers raided the

site and stole some of the amphoras. This forced the Valencia government to

build a thick metal grating to cover the remains and protect the jars.

What remains of the wooden structure of the ship itself — about 60 percent —

is buried under mud in the seabed, de said.

The cargo probably also includes lead, which the Romans used for plumbing,

and copper, which they mixed with tin to make bronze for everything from

plates to jewelry.

The fish sauce is no longer in the amphoras because the seals were not

hermetic and could not withstand 20 centuries under water. But traces of

fish bone remain inside and these will help researchers determine how the

sauces were made, de said.