Amphorae in Marseille find the depths

Two reconstructed wrecks for divers off Friuli and Niolon

Nearly a hundred Roman amphorae brought to the surface by Commander Cousteau's team will return to the sea. This is Patrick Grandjean, chief curator of the Department of Underwater and Underwater Archaeological Research (Drassm) of the Ministry of Culture, who had the idea. “Insofar as these amphorae are no longer of great scientific interest and neither are they of interest to museums, explains the archaeologist, it seemed interesting and original to us to enhance them by reconstructing, underwater, two archaeological sites intended for sports and leisure divers, with real amphorae from an authentic underwater excavation. ”

Part of them submerged in a sandy and sheltered area of ​​the Frioul archipelago, these amphorae were not the first jugs to come: they were indeed the booty of the very first underwater archaeological excavation in a History, in 1952, near the islet of Grand Congloué, off the creeks of Marseille. The wreck where they lay at the time had been excavated by a handful of divers gathered by Jacques-Yves Cousteau on his new boat, the Calypso, then unknown to the general public. All were very quickly going to enter by the front door in the history of diving, in particular Albert Falco, who met Cousteau on this occasion and Henri-Germain Delauze, who founded Comex less than ten years later.

The idea of ​​re-immersing these amphorae, nearly 70 years after their discovery, also signals the Drassm's desire to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Commander Cousteau, considered one of their most outstanding precursors by diving archaeologists around the world. . “It is also for this reason that we wanted to set up the first two French sites which reconstruct an ancient wreck in the harbor of Marseille”, explains Patrick Grandjean, recalling that "this city ​​hasplayed a major role in the history of diving and underwater archeology over the past century ”. After Frioul, it is off the calanque de Niollon that the second part of the amphorae from Grand Congloué will be submerged. Several diving clubs operating in Marseille and on the Blue Coast were associated with the operation: the CIP Niolon, the Plaisir de la Mer club and the Neptune Club, but also Serge's Underwater Archaeological Research Group (Grasm). Ximénès, one of the rare associations of amateur underwater archaeologists to collaborate in the long term with the Drassm. For them it is blessed bread, at a time when the general public is constantly asking for new things.

These two sites will in fact constitute new diving “spots” for their members and their clients, in areas which had hitherto been of no particular interest. Their depth will not exceed fifteen meters, in order to allow as many people as possible to discover these reconstructions of an ancient archaeological site before underwater excavation. The fact remains that placing real Roman amphorae on the bottom is not without danger. Wreck looters are indeed legion in the area and it does not matter to them whether or not an amphora comes from a virgin site, as long as it is authentic.

“It's a riskadmits Patrick Grandjean, but we agree to run it. On the one hand because these amphorae do not have much market value, on the other hand because it seemed to us more interesting to make them accessible to the general public rather than to enclose them behind an underwater cage, like that. is done in other countries. ” To monitor the site and avoid its premature destruction, the Drassm also counts “On the motivation and know-how of diving clubs, which have every interest in keeping these sites as they are”, but also on the vigilance of the agents of the State at sea (maritime gendarmerie, customs, lookouts ??) to dissuade malicious divers.

Source laprovence.com