This year's underwater reconnaissance Istrian coastline completed

During April, June and November 2011 members of the International Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar, under the leadership of Luka Bekić in collaboration with freelance divers have completed this year's underwater reconnaissance in the county. The goal of reconnaissance, in the program funded by the Ministry of Culture, was an overview of the known underwater sites, and checking of the potential new sites according to reports of the divers. During a total of four weeks the team surveyed at several positions. Few ancient ports and postmedieval anchorages were surveyed were a lot of pottery can still be found at the surface. Also the positions with the indications of ancient shipwrecks in the Rovinj Archipelago were examined, but it was found out that these sites are largely looted, and hardly a piece of the typologically definable part of the pottery can be found. The most interesting results come from a newly discovered shipwreck off the island of St. John. In addition to already known postmedieval shipwreck with a cargo of bricks, a number of pieces of large cylindrical and some ribbed amphorae were found. Since this site is fully looted, it is interesting to find lead plates of the ship hull, the rim of the plate and a throat with a handle of amphorae dating the shipwreck roughly in the third to fourth century, with a high probability that it carried a cargo of large cylindrical African amphorae. At the cape near Ližnjan, where two ancient shipwrecks were located, several upper parts of amphora's of African origin and domestic pottery of Aegean origin were found. Based on these finds, it is assumed that the wreck B dates from 3. to 4. century. Although the surface finds are mostly looted, further research could give us a lot of clues on the wreck.