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A nuclear submarine built for the Cold War 1945–1989 and an underwater remotely operated vehicle allowed oceanographers, archaeologists, and engineers in the mid 1990s to retrieve 115 artifacts from eight ships sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, including five ancient Roman ships.

The expedition leader, oceanographer Robert Ballard of the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut, first discovered one of the shipwrecks in 1988. Using the powerful sonar system of the U.S. Navy’s NR-1 nuclear submarine, Ballard and his research team found three more of the wrecks in 1995 and four in 1997. Artifacts on and around the wrecks indicated that one Roman sailing ship dated from the late second or early first century,verifying it as one of the oldest Roman ships ever found. The shipwrecks also included four other Roman vessels from the first few centuries C . E ., and three ships from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The wrecks, located west of Sicily in 762 meters at 2,500 feet of water, were the largest grouping of ancient ships ever found in deep water. The explorers believe that the five Roman ships sank in storms while following a high seas trade route between Rome and the ancient North African city of Carthage is located near the modern city of Tunis . This information corrected the previous archaeological belief that Roman ships followed coastal routes, rather than venturing out on the high seas.

The research team recovered artifacts using the ROV Jason and a remotecontrolled arm on the submarine. Items retrieved from the oldest ship, which was about 30 meters (100 feet) long, included bronze vessels; at least eight types of pottery jars “amphoras” for carrying and storing olive oil, preserved fruit, and wine; kitchen items; and two pieces of anchors.

Ballard’s team focused on mapping all the wrecks and retrieving selected artifacts from each ship. With this method, the researchers could widen their investigation and learn about all the ships, spending about the same amount of time and money as would have been involved in excavating only one wreck completely. Archaeologists say this strategy works well for deep-water wrecks that are likely to remain well preserved. Wrecks in shallow water, however, are subject to damage from looting, from coral overgrowth, and from being destroyed on reefs by waves and tides.