Ancient Shipwreck Yields Treasures Linked to Roman Statesman Who Influenced U.S. Founders

A 2,100-year-old shipwreck discovered off the coast of Turkey has yielded thousands of luxury ceramic dishes that were once prized by the Roman statesman Cicero. The find is notable because Cicero's writings significantly influenced the U.S. Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported on September 28 that the artifacts were recovered by divers working among scattered pottery on the seabed. The collection includes 122 different forms and sizes of plates, bowls, and trays, some designed for nuts, soup, and fish.

Researchers believe the ship, traveling from Rhosus to Rome, sank after encountering a shallow area during a storm. The wreck lies between 138 and 180 feet below the surface. The ceramics are thought to originate from Rhosus, a production center mentioned in Cicero's writings. However, there is no evidence that these specific recovered dishes belonged to Cicero himself.

In a letter to his friend Atticus around 50 B.C., Cicero mentioned ordering ceramic vessels from Rhosus. Taco Terpstra, a professor of classics and history at Northwestern University, described the discovery as an unusual opportunity to connect ancient artifacts with historical texts.

"It's unusual that we have so much of this type of ceramic," Terpstra said. He explained that coins found on the ship help date the wreck, and the pottery can be traced to a production region in what is now southern Turkey and northern Syria. The combination of archaeological evidence, ancient coins, and literary references makes this discovery particularly rare.

Terpstra characterized the ceramics as the ancient equivalent of fine china, noting, "This is not ordinary tableware. This is not the kind of stuff that ordinary Romans would have on their table. This is for a high-end market, which is one reason why Cicero talks about these."

Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy stated that the ceramics were remarkably well-preserved. Terpstra suggested this preservation may be due to unfired clay being packed between the dishes before they were placed in wooden crates. "I imagine they meant unfired soft clay, which, when the ship went down, preserved the ceramics to a very high degree," Terpstra said.

While Roman shipwrecks are common in the Mediterranean, Terpstra emphasized that the convergence of monetary, archaeological, and literary evidence in this find is "quite rare."