The shipwreck that keeps on giving

PHOENICIAN WATCH: A Phoenician wreck that just keeps giving. Recent find shows Malta may have been part of early Phoenician trade network.

A jug unearthed at the oldest shipwreck in the central Mediterranean could prove that the Maltese islands were an integral part of the Phoenician trade network.

“To date, we knew that the Phoenicians lived here, because they died here. And to date, our main archaeological sources came from graves,” marine archaeologist Timmy Gambin told The Sunday Times of Malta.

“We now have a ship that was actually leaving the Maltese Islands before it sank off Gozo, because the island was one of its port calls. A shipwreck without any local items could mean that the ship just happened to sink close to Malta during its voyage.”

Confirming the origin of the jug, he said, could place Malta as an integral part of the trading network of the earliest phase of the Phoenician occupation.

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Background on the Gozo shipwreck is here and here, with links to past posts about Maltese Phoenician archaeology and history.