A group of Spanish archaeologists has developed detailed plans for the recovery of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician shipwreck, aiming to find the best ways to retrieve it from the sea before it is permanently destroyed by storms. The ship, named "Matarón II," is an eight-meter-long unique artifact that highlights ancient naval engineering, named after the municipality of Matarón in the Murcia region of southeastern Spain, where it was found off the coast.
Nine experts from the University of Valencia spent 560 hours over more than two weeks in June documenting all the cracks and fissures in the ship, which lies 60 meters off the Playa de la Isla beach in Matarón. Later this year, the experts will recommend how to protect and potentially recover the wreck, possibly next summer.
Archaeologist Carlos de Juan from the Institute of Marine Archaeology at the University of Valencia stated that pieces of the wreck could be extracted individually according to the existing cracks and then reassembled outside of the water. He added to Reuters, "It is better to save the ship, restore it, and display it in a museum for the public to enjoy, rather than worrying every time a major storm hits."
