Iron Age Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea

Mazarron I, a Phoenician shipwreck c 600 BC

Mazarron I is a Phoenician coastal trading vessel that sank off the coast of Mercia in southern Spain about 600 BC

By Nick Nutter on 2024-12-21 | Last Updated 2024-12-21 | Iron Age Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea

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Mazarron I cargo

Where was the Mazarron I shipwreck found?

Mazarron is a small port on the southern coast of Spain in the region of Murcia. Mazarron I was found in the shallow waters just off the beach, Playa de la Isla, at a depth of only 2.5 metres.

About the Mazarron I wreck site

The shipwreck was discovered in 1988 during the building of a marina at Playa de la Isla.

Work started on the wreck in 1993 and it has been raised, together with what is left of its cargo and is currently on display at the Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Cartagena.

Who excavated the shipwreck?

Archaeologists from the Spanish National Museum of Maritime Archaeology and the National Centre for Underwater Archaeological Research.

When did the wreck sink?

Mazarron I sank in about 600 BC.

How was Mazarron I built and what were its dimensions?

The remains of Mazarron I only include a nearly complete keel made of cypress, nine partial planking strakes and four fragmented fig tree frames.

From these few remains certain deductions have been made. Mazarron I was about 8.2 metres overall with a beam of 2.2 metres.

The stem was fixed to the keel using a ‘T’ shaped scarf joint designed to withstand vertical as well as horizontal stress. Other building techniques are also unusual, or at least encountered in a wreck for the first time, such as the fastening of the strakes. The method used on Mazarron I was a combination of two established methods, tightly pegged or dowelled mortise and tenon joints together with sewn seams. Esparto grass yarn was used for the stitching. The hull, inside and out, was coated with pine tar to preserve the wood and provide another level of waterproofing.

What was the ship’s cargo?

The cargo of the Mazarron I shipwreck was mainly composed of litharge ‘bun’ ingots, similar to those found at the Mazarron II wreck site.

What was the purpose of the cargo?

Litharge or lead oxide, is a natural form of lead that has formed from the oxidation of galena, lead sulphide. It is also a by product of a process called cupellation where silver rich lead ore is heated to 600 degrees C. Pure lead melts at 300 degrees C. Air is then blown across the surface of the boiling lead. Litharge forms on the surface of the boiling lead and can be scraped off. The silver bearing lead remaining can then be further refined to extract the silver. The litharge produced in this second process can be used again.

Why litharge was being transported instead of being refined on the spot is something of a mystery. Although pure lead can be refined from litharge, the process is more expensive in terms of fuel used and loss of lead through volatilization, than extracting lead from the native ore, galena, lead sulphide. It can only be assumed that the value of the silver extracted from the galena, on average about 5,000 parts per million or 0.5%, was so great at this time that it was worth using all the galena to produce silver and then going to the increased expense of transporting and refining the litharge for the far less valuable lead.

More analysis of the lead ingot cargo may reveal that the litharge cargo is simply lead that has oxidised beneath the seawater over a period of three thousand years or it is a product of the first cupellation process, in other words lead with a high silver content.

Where did the Mazarron I come from and where was it going?

Mazaron I was a trading vessel capable of carrying up to four tonnes of cargo, propelled by oars and probably also had a mast and sail. It had a shallow draft suitable for inshore sailing and navigating rivers.

The use of hybrid building techniques, pegged mortise and tenon joints that are a feature of eastern Mediterranean boats together with sewn planks that are more common in western Mediterranean contexts suggests the boat was built in Iberia.

As to its destination. That has not been determined.

How did Mazarron I sink?

Whilst nobody knows for sure, the evidence suggests that the Mazarron I sank in a violent storm. The presence nearby of a vessel of similar age, Mazarron II, suggests that both foundered during the same storm.

Political situation at the time

By 600 BC, the Phoenicians had settlements all along the Iberian Mediterranean coast as far as Portugal on the Atlantic coast. There was a flourishing trade between the western Mediterranean and the civilisations in the Middle East such as Assyria and Egypt.

Where can the Mazarron I shipwreck and its cargo be seen?

The remains of Mazarron I are on view at the Underwater Archaeology Museum in Cartagena.

References

Personal studies at the Underwater Archaeology Museum in Cartagena.
Ayuntamiento de Mazarrón (2004). "Barcos Fenicios" [Phoenician ships]. Ayutamiento de Mazarron (in Spanish).
Ayuntamiento de Mazarrón. Concejalía de Turismo. (2015). "Barco Fenicio de Mazarrón". Visit Mazarrón.
López-Ruiz, Carolina; Doak, Brian R. (2022). The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-765442-2.
Nutter N. (2018). Phoenicians in Andalucia | The Phoenician wreck of Mazarron II. https://www.visit-andalucia.com/phoenician-wreck-mazarron/
Tejedor, Carlos C. (2018) The Mazarron I shipwreck: an iron-age boat with unique features from the Iberian Peninsula.