Bust of Dionysus recovered from sea

A small metal bust of the Roman god of wine, Dionysus, has been recovered from the Mediterranean seafloor off the coast of Israel.

Photo credit: Israel Antiquities Authority

The bust was just one of several metal figurines and large numbers of coins discovered by two divers in the ancient harbour of Caesarea.

The find has been described as one of the largest hauls of marine artifacts discovered in the country for over three decades. It also includes an oil lamp in the shape of an African’s head, statuettes of the moon goddess, Luna, and sun god, Sol, and fragments from a lifesize statue.

The ship the artifacts were on is thought to have sunk in a storm 1,600 years ago. Anchors on the seabed close to the wreck indicate its crew may have tried to stop the vessel drifting but the large waves drove it onto the seawall where it was dashed to bits.

The finds are extremely well preserved but many look as though they are broken in some way and not because of the sinking of the ship. Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority believe they may in fact have been destined for scrap and their sinking, conversely, saved them for posterity.

Coins from the wreck show the images of Constantine and his rival in the east, Licinius.

After Constantine’s defeat of Licinius in 324AD*, the Roman Empire was united under Constantine alone – who earned the moniker ‘the Great’ for his pains – and this period of Roman resurgence also coincided with the legalisation of Christianity across the empire.

Was the small bust of one of the ‘old gods’ perhaps thrown onto the scrapheap by a Christian finally free to worship openly or by a new convert to “the true vine”?

*Constantine initially spared his life but later had him executed on charges of conspiring to raise an army of barbarians against him.