Record-setting treasure haul discovered on medieval shipwreck hints at powerful Byzantine leader aboard
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Archaeologists have discovered a Byzantine-era shipwreck off Croatia that was loaded to bear with gold, jewels and other sunken baubles, suggesting that a high-ranking official was aboard this veritable treasure ship.
”It’s the most important shipwreck of its period,” said Justin Leidwanger, professor of archaeology at Stanford University, told Reuters of the aquatic haul.
The shipwreck had been discovered on the seafloor near the Croatian island of Mljet over ten years ago, but the Croatian Conservation Institute only presented the find this summer following years of underwater excavations.
Dating back to the late seventh or early eighth century A.D., the vessel had harbored a treasure trove.
The cache included gold belts bejeweled with rubies, emeralds and pearls gold coins that were minted under four emperors from the Heraclian dynasty and other artifacts that indicated this was no mere merchant vessel.
All told, the amount of gold weighed over a pound after being cleaned and restored, marking the “largest ever found on a shipwreck in the entire Mediterranean,” per the Croatian Conservation Institute’s head of research Igor Miholjek.
Perhaps the crown jewel was a gold signet ring emblazoned with the era’s namesake, Heraclius, who presided over the Byzantine Empire between 610 and 641 A.D, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
Researchers speculated that it was likely used to seal documents in the Emperor’s name.
As such, the bauble “certainly wouldn’t be worn by just anyone,” according to Pavle Dugonjic, head of the Croatian research organization’s Department of Underwater Archaeology that helped lead the excavations.
Unfortunately, the identity of the wearer remains unclear, although experts speculate that they could’ve been an envoy transporting gifts to a far-flung ally.
However, they could’ve also been a wealthy elite who hitched a ride on a cargo vessel based on the fact that the riches shared the ship with run-of-the-mill items such as ceramic pottery and amphorae.
Researchers hope that analysis of the haul will help offer a window on the little-known period in which the wreck sank. These so-called Dark Ages in Europe that followed the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium — which was based in Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey — continued to prosper and once encompassed a large swath of the eastern Mediterranean but their footprint receded during the early 8th century amid economic upheaval and Islamic expansion.
“If you’re studying the end of the late Roman Empire and the transformation into the medieval world, this is a critical site for us to understand and to gain insights into how the Mediterranean was held together by its sea routes, how it fragmented, how the empire fell apart,” said Leidwanger.