The discovery was made by researchers from the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, who resumed work at the site in 2023 after a 13-year break caused by Libya’s civil war.
According to the team, the wreck area extends for more than 100 meters, suggesting that several ships, not just one, were lost there over time while approaching the ancient port from the east.
Piotr Jaworski, who heads the Ptolemais research project, said the length of the wreck field made clear that the area had seen repeated maritime disasters.
Ptolemais was one of the largest ancient Greek cities in Cyrenaica, a historical region in what is now northeastern Libya.
Founded by the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt in the late 4th or 3rd century BC, the city survived until the Arab conquest in the 7th century AD. It is located near today's village of Tolmeita, about 110 km east of Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city.
The underwater survey focused on the harbor zone and nearby waters.
Prof. Bartosz Kontny, dean of the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw and head of the underwater research, said part of the ancient port infrastructure now lies below sea level because the Mediterranean has risen slightly over the centuries and the coastline was further altered by earthquakes.
He said the team found ancient columns, traces of submerged roads, many discarded anchors and sounding devices once used to test the seabed. He added that these finds would be studied in future seasons.
Near a shallow rock formation close to the harbor, divers found a long line of archaeological material several meters below the surface. The finds point to ships being wrecked there repeatedly on their way into port.
On one of the wrecked ships, researchers found a valuable element of a Roman balance scale, an aequipondium, shaped like a woman’s head, cast in bronze and filled with lead.
They did not find other weights nearby, but they did recover many amphorae and parts of the cargo. In one amphora, the team found what may be crystallized wine, now undergoing analysis.
Elsewhere at the site, another group of archaeologists led by Szymon Lenarczyk discovered a previously unknown road designed for wheeled transport leading up to the acropolis from the interior.
Jaworski said the find was unexpected because the acropolis stands on a high plateau about 300 meters above sea level, and the team had not imagined such an impressive southern approach.
The researchers also believe they may have found traces of observation towers that could have formed part of the city’s defensive system and served as an early warning network.
Near the road, the team uncovered a milestone, a stone marker used in the Roman Empire to mark distances along roads. This example bears a Greek inscription dated to the Severan dynasty and is marked with the Greek numeral gamm, the third letter of the Greek alphabet.
Jaworski said more such milestones may survive along the route. The newly found marker is provisionally dated to the first half of the 3rd century AD, a period when the city was flourishing.
Conservators from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, who are also working at Ptolemais under Prof. Krzysztof Chmielewski, are cataloging and assessing wall paintings moved from the House of Leukaktios to the local museum in 2008, a collection covering several dozen square meters.
In addition, they are conserving a Byzantine painting showing the face of a bearded man and have created a replica of a rare double-dial stone sundial discovered by Warsaw archaeologists in 2010.
Jaworski said the site still holds enormous research potential. As the Warsaw team marks 25 years of excavation work in Libya in 2026, he said, almost the entire city remains to be uncovered.
(rt/gs)
Source: naukawpolsce.pl