The Classical Shipwreck at El Sec

The shipwreck at El Sec—located off the southwest coast of Mallorca, the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands—was one of the first wrecks in Spain to be explored by archaeologists Nino Lamboglia and Francesca Pallarés in the 1970s. By the 1970s, however, the wreck had already been looted, poorly excavated, and dynamited in attempts to free the concreted cargo. Among the artifacts recovered were Greek transport amphoras from the Aegean, Grecoitalic Will A2, and Punic types from the Central Mediterranean, including Ebusus (Ibiza Island). Other objects from the ship include Attic red figure and black-glazed pottery, Punic pottery, bronze cauldrons (Greek lebes), and volcanic millstones, suggesting an initial tentative date between 375–350 B.C. The fact that many Greek ceramics were labeled with Punic graffiti suggested that Punic merchants had played an important role in their trade.

The University of Valencia, in collaboration with the Institute of Nautical Archeology, promoted the implementation of the project to re-excavate the wreck of El Sec. The work was carried out intermittently between 2021 and 2023. The fundamental objective of the project was the in-depth study of the remains of the naval architecture of El Sec shipwreck, which had been intensely looted and excavated in the second half of the 20th century. The first two campaigns at El Sec wreck, however, showed that an important part of the site remained untouched. Our work at El Sec is ongoing, and yet the huge, heterogeneous cargo recovered to date clearly points to a maritime venture originating at a major harbor in the central Mediterranean. At this time, we propose that the El Sec ship originated at Carthage, which could have supplied plentiful markets of food products, handcrafted commodities, as well as raw and exotic materials in the fourth century. Greek pottery found during our work is well attested in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula, an area under strong Punic influence during this period. Whether (or not) the ship that sank at El Sec was a Punic vessel constructed by Punic shipwrights is one of many questions we are considering as the excavation continues.