2,300-year-old shipwreck off Croatia yields rare pottery and wooden remains

A shipwreck found off the Croatian island of Vis has revealed an extraordinary collection of ancient pottery, personal belongings and surviving wooden remains inside a merchant vessel that once sailed the Adriatic Sea. The 2,300-year-old wreck has brought to light objects that offer a glimpse into the lives of sailors during the Hellenistic period. The findings were announced by the Croatian Conservation Institute on October 4, highlighting discoveries made during archaeological investigations between 2023 and 2025.The shipwreck dates to approximately the fourth or third century BCE, when Greek settlements and local communities maintained extensive trading connections across the Adriatic. It lies in Gnjilna Bay, near the town of Komiža on Vis, an island along Croatia’s Dalmatian coast. Archaeologists initially knew the site through a small number of fragments belonging to Corinthian type B amphorae, large ceramic containers commonly used to transport wine and olive oil.