This small sea area between Europe and Africa is the site of 124 shipwrecks, archeologists find

The archeological sites explored so far were found at depths of up to about 10 metres, or 33 feet. (Felipe Cerezo Andreo via CNN Newsource)

Like the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Gibraltar, which lies between the southern tip of Europe and the northwestern tip of Africa, holds a history of shipping and conflict in its waters.

A lot of the archeological evidence for this sits to the east of the strait, in the Bay of Algeciras, also known as the Bay of Gibraltar — a stopping-off point for transatlantic shipping, nowadays mainly of oil.

Spanish archeologists say they identified 151 underwater archeological sites, including 124 shipwrecks, in the 29-square-mile (75-square-kilometre) bay while conducting an archeological survey between 2020 and 2023.

The shipwrecks are from a range of eras and civilizations, including the ancient Punic (Carthaginian) civilization, and the Roman, medieval and modern periods, according to a recent research paper.

The discovery of the shipwrecks confirms the importance of the bay as a maritime hub of regional and global significance, the researchers said. It has been surrounded by urban settlements since the ancient period, been an entry point to the Iberian Peninsula in the medieval period, and a point of naval confrontation over control of the strait in modern times.

While most of the wrecks relate to modern history, the researchers also found “some very interesting unseen shipwrecks,” lead researcher Felipe Cerezo Andreo, an associate professor of underwater archeology at the University of Cádiz in Spain, told CNN Tuesday.

While thousands of naval accidents are mentioned in historical and archival sources, many wrecks remain undiscovered because there has so far been little archeological study of the history buried under the waters.

The oldest find was a wreck from the 5th century BCE, Andreo said, adding that the ship would have carried fish sauce produced in the southern Spanish city of Cádiz, and was probably carrying that cargo through the Mediterranean.

The “most interesting” from modern times were the wrecks related to the Napoleonic wars, fought between France and shifting European allies in the early 19th century, Andreo said.

The researchers also identified wrecks from as recent as the beginning of World War II, documenting the remains of a Maiale, or Pig — a kind of submarine used by the Italian navy to attack the British fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar during World War II, according to Andreo.

The Strait of Gibraltar, “like the Hormuz now, is a narrow pass mandatory for all vessels,” Andreo said.

“All vessels that want to go from (the) Mediterranean to (the) Atlantic have to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, and probably most of them have to anchor and wait for better weather conditions in the Bay of Algeciras,” the “harbour of the strait,” he added.

The researchers did not have archeological documentation of most of the wrecks before the project. Prior to 2019, only four underwater archeological sites were known in the area, and only one of those could be considered the result of a shipwreck, according to the researchers.

Climate change is affecting ocean currents and the movement of sediment in the bay, according to the researchers — and “this is causing the uncovering of all these shipwrecks,” Andreo said.

The archeologists used geophysical techniques — such as a multibeam echosounder that emits sound to map the seabed in 3D, and a magnetometer that measures magnetic fields — to identify objects on the seabed and anomalies buried in the sediment, before diving to measure and make a digital model of the archeological finds.

The researchers say they want to study and protect the archeological sites, which hold information about the maritime history of the area, including on maritime traffic, trade, naval technology and those who traveled the sea, explaining that they remain vulnerable to changing landscapes and the activity of large ships anchoring at the bay.

“For us, it’s important to record them, document it virtually and technically in order to protect them,” legally or physically, Andreo said.

The team have so far only looked at a “very shallow depth” of about 10 metres (33 feet), but the Bay of Algeciras is about 400 metres (1,312 feet) deep, said Andreo, who believes there are archeological remains deep in the bay dating as far back as prehistoric times, because the shore from the Paleolithic period, or Old Stone Age, “is now underwater.”

The researchers said future projects will focus on carrying out a detailed study of each shipwreck — they have so far studied 24 per cent of the archeological sites identified — as well as exploring the sites at greater depths.

By Amarachi Orie, CNN