On 18 October, the Council of Mallorca gathered national and international specialists for International Archaeology Day to decide whether to extract the Roman merchantman Ses Fontanelles, which lay 60 m off Playa de Palma and faced growing threats from storms and looters. “The sea has offered us an extraordinary heritage. What we decide to do with it today will define our future and allow us to share this heritage with the public,” said regional president Llorenç Galmés. The approved timetable set the start of hull recovery for 2026, with work expected to last at least five years.
A local swimmer, Félix Alarcón, discovered the wreck in 2019 after a storm exposed ancient timbers, prompting the excavation conducted between November 2021 and February 2022. Researchers believed the merchantman was trying to reach the shallow port-lagoon that once lay behind Playa de Palma, an anchorage created after the Roman conquest led by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus in 123 BCE, when it foundered.
University of Cadiz researchers call the fourth century ses fontanelles wreck one of Spain's most significant underwater finds since Monte Testaccio, preserving a unique time capsule of late Roman commerce.
Professor Enrique García of the University of the Balearic Islands explained that the wreck’s preservation stemmed from rapid burial under sand, which blocked oxygen and halted biological decay. Parts of the hull and deck still retained their structure, and many amphorae remained sealed.
The 12 meters vessel rested in only two metres of water and probably sank in the mid-4th century CE. A bronze coin minted at Siscia around 320 CE, found beneath the mast, anchored the dating. Archaeologists believed the ship had departed the Roman port of Cartagena carrying olive oil, wine and garum. Laboratory tests showed the amphorae were made in southeastern Spain, underscoring the Murcia region’s role as an industrial hub in late antiquity.
Some containers display early Christian monograms, while painted inscriptions—tituli picti—list producers, contents and tax codes. “These writings show the administrative and commercial networks that supported Roman trade,” said Dario Bernal of the University of Cádiz. National Geographic Historia noted that at least seven different hands labelled the jars, suggesting an organized supply chain.
The assemblage ranked among Spain’s largest collections of late-Roman amphorae, second only to Rome’s Monte Testaccio. Five previously unknown types, including one now called Ses Fontanelles I, had already been catalogued. References to sweet oil (oleum dulcis) and ceramic stoppers stamped with the chrisme implied that part of the cargo might have been marketed under ecclesiastical oversight. Specialists regarded the wreck as one of the most valuable corpora of tituli picti in the Roman world.
Personal items illustrated life aboard a coastal freighter: a leather shoe, an esparto sandal, a carpenter’s bow drill, an oil lamp depicting Artemis, coils of rope and botanical remains. Wooden partitions still separated cargo sections, and at least one amphora’s clay seal preserved traces of premium liquaminis flos, an anchovy sauce prized in Rome.
Because earlier storms detached the keel, archaeologists planned to lift the hull in sections. “Each piece will enter freshwater tanks at Castillo San Carlos for desalination before stabilization with synthetic resins,” said Dr Carlos de Juan of the University of Valencia. Spain’s National Museum of Underwater Archaeology (ARQUA) would supervise reassembly, and the conservation program was expected to continue into the 2030s.
For now, the wooden structure remained buried under sandbags, while more than 200 ceramic vessels and small artefacts had been sent to specialist laboratories. The Museum of Mallorca intended to create a gallery focused on Roman maritime heritage with the ship as its centrepiece.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.