Egadi Islands Punic War Shipwreck Survey

These islands, as well as the western coast of Sicily, are along one of the most direct and heavily utilized ancient sea routes between North Africa and mainland Italy. This route was particularly active during the Roman peiod as is evidenced by the discovery of the Lvanzo I Wreck. Furthermore, these islands witnessed one of the critical naval battles of antiquity, one that ended the First Punic War and set Rome on its path for greatness.

Soprintendenza del Mare of Sicily and RPMNF, under the co-directorship of Dr. Sebastiano Tusa and Dr. Jeff Royal respectively, have been conducting ongoing multibeam survey and ROV verification of anomalies since 2005. The multibeam efforts focused primarily around the island of Levanzo (one among the Egadi Islands), with the port of Trapani providing a base of operations.

ABOVE: Photos of surveys from 2009 to 2011 (Photos: Courtesy of RPMF).