Lost at Sea in the First Century BCE: Reconstructing People from Shipwrecks

Although prior scholarship has shown that people would have arranged for passage on merchant ships, little attention has been given to collectively studying shipwrecks to understand what passengers or crew brought aboard and broader patterns in mobility. Here, I examine the assemblages of first-century BCE shipwrecks to identify personal items and reconstruct the identity of individuals aboard, distinguishing also cargo items from personal items. In addition, aspects of individual identities can be ascertained, such as the sex of the women aboard two shipwrecks as known by their skeletal remains, or the profession of the medical practitioners aboard three shipwrecks as known by their instruments. Finally, the evidence emphasizes long-distance travel in the first century BCE with the women travelling from the eastern Mediterranean to Italy, and one of the medical practitioners from Italy to Hispania. The jewellery, figurines, instruments, amulets, and clothing found in these wrecks attest to the entangled networks of people and goods coming together for a brief moment aboard the ship as they move around the Mediterranean and allow a glimpse at those who otherwise remain hidden in antiquity.

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