Qualla: Mahdia Shipwreck

Mahdia Shipwreck: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jaume Ollé, CC BY 3.0. In June 1907, Greek sponge fishermen working the waters off the Tunisian coast near Mahdia noticed something unusual on the seafloor. What they found was the cargo of a ship that had sunk between 80 and 60 BC: dozens of heavy marble columns, bronze and marble sculptures, furniture fittings, decorative objects, and parts of catapults. The vessel had been carrying the plundered art of Athens to wealthy Roman buyers when a storm drove it onto the North African coast. The ship never reached Italy. Its cargo lay on the seabed for two thousand years.

Read more: Mahdia Shipwreck on Qualla

Image: Jaume Ollé | CC BY 3.0

Mahdia Shipwreck: Sulla's Shopping List

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit J. J. de Smet, Public domain. The marble columns found in the wreck have long been associated with Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Roman dictator who sacked Athens in 86 BC. Scholars believe Sulla ordered the columns removed from Athenian buildings and shipped to Rome, where they would furnish the construction pr...

Read more: Mahdia Shipwreck on Qualla

Image: J. J. de Smet | Public domain

Mahdia Shipwreck: Bronze Gods from the Deep

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Phil Richards from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. French archaeologist Alfred Merlin, then Director of Antiquities in the Protectorate of Tunisia, led the major salvage campaigns between 1907 and 1913. What his teams brought up was extraordinary. A herm figure of Dionysus, turbaned and serene, bore the signature of its maker, Bo...

Read more: Mahdia Shipwreck on Qualla

Image: Phil Richards from London, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mahdia Shipwreck: The Satyr and the Lead

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Profburp, CC BY-SA 3.0. Among five smaller bronzes recovered in 1910 was a satyr, its compact form capturing the wild energy of the mythological figure in a piece barely 35 centimeters tall. This bronze now resides in the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, along with the rest of the recovered cargo. But th...

Read more: Mahdia Shipwreck on Qualla

Image: Profburp | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mahdia Shipwreck: What Remains Below

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Citizen59, CC BY-SA 3.0. Further survey work on the site was conducted by a team led by Mensun Bound, but no additional excavations have been possible. The wreck lies in waters that make sustained underwater archaeology difficult, and the political and financial complexities of undersea heritage in Tunis...

Read more: Mahdia Shipwreck on Qualla

Image: Citizen59 | CC BY-SA 3.0