Shipwrecks Database
J. Strauss, A. I. Wilson, M. Flohr (2017). OxREP Shipwrecks Database. Version 2.1.
This database aims to catalogue all known ancient wrecks in the Mediterranean up to AD 1500 to provide a basis for quantitative analysis over time, building on the seminal work of A. J. Parker, Ancient Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and the Roman Provinces (Oxford: BAR International Series 580, 1992), and the database from Julia Strauss’s PhD. thesis entitled Roman Cargoes: Underwater Evidence from the East (London 2007), which aimed at categorizing those wrecks pertinent to a PhD. study of transport of goods from the Eastern Mediterranean. Julia Strauss has updated the database by going systematically through the relevant maritime archaeology journals and other literature published between 1992 and 2009 (see list below).
Inclusion in the database has been limited to finds that are assumed to have come from a shipwreck rather than simply lost or dumped overboard. An impressive number of wrecks (around 600) have been discovered since 1992, some in deep water reflecting the growing use of submarines and Remotely Operated Vehicles, some on land where construction work has taken place in what used to be a port and some in areas where specific marine exploration has been carried out.
In the spreadsheet version available for download, wrecks have been classified with the following information: a number assigned by this database, its number in Parker (if applicable), name, sea area, country, region, latitude and longitude, period, earliest and latest dates, place of origin and place of destination (as far as possible), minimum and maximum depths, references, general comments, estimated tonnage, amphorae finds, marble finds, other cargo, hull remains, shipboard paraphernalia and ship equipment.
The name of the wreck usually corresponds to its location, and when several obviously different cargoes are found in the same place, they are assigned letters, for example, Knidos A and B. The date of the wreck depends almost wholly on the analysis of any goods on board and even this can be vague if amphorae, for example, are not of a specific type that can be dated accurately. If there is no cargo at all, then a ship can in theory be dated by dendrochronology and Carbon-14 dating, although many have not. The depth of the site can be precisely recorded if examined by divers, but many sites were discovered by sponge divers and fishermen in the early twentieth century who were unable to measure depth accurately or had no interest in doing so.
Latitude and longitudes are NOT to be taken as accurate: precise locations are not revealed by excavators so as to prevent pillaging and it was the aim of this database simply to log them for general mapping purposes. Details of references (for example, article titles) are limited due to a shortage of space and all references before 1992 are included in Parker.
The database should not be viewed as the definitive guide to all the ancient shipwrecks since there are certainly omissions, but as a work in progress it will be regularly updated. Any notifications would be gratefully received.
The database is available for download as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, so that users can analyse or map the data themselves. For display of spatial data in GIS systems, open the Excel spreadsheet and then save it as a .csv file in UTF-8 format (to preserve accented characters). [Unfortunately the web content management system used on this website no longer allows the upload of .csv files.]
Download the OxREP Shipwrecks Database Version 2.1 as a Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) file:
Older versions of the database
An older, superseded, version of the database created by Julia Strauss is kept available on the old OxREP website for archive purposes:
This should be cited as Strauss, J. (2013). Shipwrecks Database. Version 1.0. Accessed (date): oxrep.classics.ox.ac.uk/databases/shipwrecks_database/
Julia Strauss / Andrew Wilson, March 2017
