Protaras Roman shipwreck: the University of Cyprus (MARELab) investigation

A Roman ship lying off Protaras, loaded with transport amphorae most probably from Syria and Cilicia, was reported in 2019; the report calls it the first undisturbed Roman shipwreck found in Cyprus¹. Two volunteer divers of the underwater team of the University of Cyprus maritime laboratory (MARELab), Spyros Spyrou and Andreas Kritiotis, reported it. The exact position is not published¹.

The Department of Antiquities announced the find and moved to secure funds for a preliminary investigation in place¹. S. Demesticha, Associate Professor of Maritime Archaeology, led the MARELab team. D. Skarlatos of the Cyprus University of Technology (Civil Engineering and Geoinformatics) and the Department of Antiquities conservator E. Loizides collaborated with the team¹.

The season of 2019 was given to documenting and protecting the wreck where it lay, with photogrammetric recording done together with the Cyprus University of Technology¹. The report describes it as the first underwater archaeology project in Cyprus fully funded by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, and says the study is expected to clarify the scale of seaborne trade between Cyprus and other eastern Mediterranean Roman provinces¹.