The effort to recover the Roman ship Ses Fontanelles from the waters off Mallorca ranks among the most significant archaeological operations in the Mediterranean today.
This is not a recent accidental discovery. It is the culmination of a long process, set in motion by a storm — one that now makes it possible to reconstruct the trade routes of the fourth century A.D.
It began in 2019, when a powerful storm churned the seabed, exposing part of a wooden hull and ceramic fragments just yards from the shore at Can Pastilla. A tip from a local resident alerted the Consell de Mallorca, which confirmed the presence of a Roman merchant vessel measuring roughly 39 feet in length.
Unlike many shipwrecks, where the cargo is lost entirely to time, Ses Fontanelles preserved its contents in near-perfect condition.
Archaeological campaigns conducted between 2021 and 2022 recovered nearly 300 amphorae, many of them still sealed and bearing their original painted inscriptions. Those inscriptions revealed that the ship had been carrying luxury goods of the time: olive oil from Carthago Nova — present-day Cartagena — and liquamen, a fermented fish sauce highly prized in Roman cuisine.
What sets this wreck apart is its extraordinary state of preservation. Archaeologists found remnants of vine cuttings and branches used as dunnage — a kind of natural packing material wedged between the amphorae to keep them from shifting during the voyage.
It is a small, practical detail that puts a human face on the disaster: the last precaution taken by a crew with no way of knowing their voyage would end so close to the shores of Mallorca.
From the Seabed to the Museum: The Final Recovery
With the wood now vulnerable to currents and human activity, and time working against them, an unprecedented recovery operation had become unavoidable.
After years of documentation and on-site protection, the final extraction phase began. This is not simply a matter of lifting artifacts from the water. It involves dismantling the wooden structure piece by piece, then subjecting each piece to a complex process of desalination and consolidation to stabilize it once removed from the water.
Ses Fontanelles tells the story of a voyage cut short — most likely by a sudden storm that drove the vessel onto the sandy bottom of the Bay of Palma as it made its way toward Rome.
Today, that shipwreck is no longer a loss — it has become a legacy, one that illuminates the economic and social history of the late Roman Empire. When its conservation treatment is complete, the ship will take a place of honor at the Museo de Mallorca, bringing full circle a story that began seventeen centuries ago on the waters of the Mare Nostrum.
