Roman Naval Museum The amphorae of the Roman cargo ship

Linked to the name of the illustrious archaeologist and scholar of Roman and medieval history Nino Lamboglia , the prestigious Roman Naval Museum , located inside Palazzo Peloso Cepolla , exhibits the important finds recovered from the wreck of the Roman cargo ship found in the depths of the Gallinaria island . : pottery, naval equipment, game pieces, small lead tools for fishing as well as a hundred wine amphorae , arranged as they were originally on their ship, in a special wooden rack that reproduces the "belly".

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The Palazzo also houses the collection of Savona ceramic vases from the ancient Pharmacy of the Albenga Hospital , comprising a hundred specimens, with a characteristic white-blue decoration, produced in Savona and Albissola between the 17th and 19th centuries. Other finds instead come from the wreck of the Roman ship of Diano Marina, among which some doliola, large terracotta containers stand out. The permanent exhibition "Prehistory in Val Pennavaira" completes the museum itinerary. The exhibited material covers a time span of about 15,000 years, during which the cultures of the groups of hunters, of the first farmers-breeders, followed one another, to arrive at the age of metals and at the threshold of history.

The Roman Ship

The wreck of the Roman ship of Albenga is the most famous of all those discovered so far in the western Mediterranean, because the first works to recover amphorae with the intervention of the ship "Artiglio" have been carried out on it since 1950, and the first systematic surveys of the remains of a Roman cargo ship, intended for the transport of goods. It is found one mile from the coast, at a depth of 42 meters, in front of Albenga.

It has been the subject of thirteen underwater excavation campaigns which have made it possible to gradually document the elements of the load and the constructive characteristics of the hull. It has also been ascertained that it is the largest Roman transport ship known to date in the Mediterranean, with a load exceeding 10,000 amphorae , and therefore with a net capacity of 450/500 tons. The amphorae contained wine from Campania destined for the markets of southern France and Spain. Along with wine, black-painted pottery and other types of pottery were exported.

Personal objects of the crew and of the armed escort on board (helmets) were also recovered, the latter necessary to defend against the pirates who mainly infested the Ligurian coasts. All the elements collected allow us to date the shipwreck of the Roman ship of Albenga between 100 and 90 BC, a moment which coincides with the granting of Latin law to the Ligurian populations, with the Romanization of the region and with the consequent development of the cities.

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