Research

Discovery

The shipwreck’s site became known among the local population of Murter in the early 1960s. The story goes that it was discovered by a fisher, Celestin Pleslić, known as Šele, and then by a group of scuba divers from Murter.

Word of the find began to spread in early September 1967 thanks to Miljenko Barić, who was the skipper of the tourist vessel Borik, which sailed the route between Crvena Luka, Biograd and the Kornati Islands. On 11 September, Barić arrived in Zadar and showed a group of experts some intriguing finds brought up by sponge-hunters from Murter. On the next day, Ivo Petricioli, a professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science in Zadar, and Valentin Uranija, the director of the National Museum in Zadar, contacted the finders, and two days later they travelled with them to the site from Crvena Luka.

Before their eyes, the Murter sponge-hunters brought various items that were once part of the ship’s cargo to the surface, and then a small bronze cannon from the ship’s armaments. Judging by individual accounts, all of this was far more dramatic than what has been described, but after over a half-century, it is difficult to reconstruct the entire event with any precision.

Research campaigns in 1967 – 1973

After the precise location of the site was officially confirmed, the relevant institutions in Zadar and Šibenik joined forces in a joint campaign and rapidly removed the finds from the surface layer. October 1967 was an exceptionally tyring but also exciting month. The navy’s assistance was contingent upon the smallest possible number of civilians, who took care to document the site, while military divers extracted the finds. The first photographs were taken and the site was sketched by the already experienced divers Jerko Domančić and Dubravko Balenović.

The next campaign was organized in September 1968. Although much more modestly equipped due to the absence of the Yugoslav Navy, it was at a significantly higher level from the methodological standpoint. Another research campaign followed in September 1972, and the last one in September 1973. All the research campaigns were organized by the Cultural Monument Protection Department in Zadar, under Ksenija Radulić’s supervision. The results confirmed that the objectives set at the very beginning by Ksenija Radulić were more than justified. In the final report for 1973, she therefore stated the opinion “that the value and quantity of data for the history of material culture in the 16^th and early 17^th centuries make this site valuable at the global level”, and she once more confirmed “that integral research into the ship and the salvage of everything remaining there, including the ship’s remains, must be launched”. Unfortunately, after many years of painstaking struggles to save the site, she was forced to conclude: “Drafting a cost estimate for such an undertaking could only be done by a team of experts, working at least one month. For now, we are not even able to put together such a team, nor pay them”.

Care for the archaeological finds

In 1971, through Ksenija Radulic’s advocacy, the Municipal Council of Biograd na Moru established the Local Heritage Museum, following the tradition of the previous regional museum collection, in which the finds from Gnalic could be stored. The conception for the first display was devised by Sofija Petricioli, the curator and director of the National Museum in Zadar.
All that was left in the time that followed the research campaigns done in 1967–1973 was to care for the finds, and they were saved mostly due to the efforts of Sofija Petricioli, Božidar Vilhar, a conservator/restorer with the Archaeological Museum in Zadar, and his young associate at the time, Ivo Donelli. Thanks to their care, many sensitive finds were put in suitable condition for display in the Local Heritage Museum in Biograd na Moru, while the rest were safely stored in the museum’s auxiliary facilities.

Research campaign in 1996

After over thirty years, in the summer of 1996, Zdenko Brusic, the first archaeologist who dove down to the site in 1967, attempted to resume the research. In an arrangement with a private foreign investor, the Archaeological Museum in Zadar launched an initiative to establish an underwater archaeology research centre, and the shipwreck at Gnalic was supposed to become one of the leading projects. The conditions for something like this had not yet arisen, because the State Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection Administration of the time halted the initiative. 

Nonetheless, during the research campaign which was undertaken that year, the extraction of interesting items continued, and the public was reminded of an exceptionally valuable and almost entirely forgotten site.

Field workshop in 2011

After several unsuccessful attempts to secure the funding needed to resume underwater research, on 5 July 2011 a round table discussion was held in Biograd na Moru on the topic of “The Shipwreck at Gnalic: Research History, the Problems of Conserving Archaeological Finds, Plans for the Future and Application of Underwater Information and Communication Technologies”. The pioneers of Gnalic research, Sofija Petricioli, Zdenko Brusic and Dalibor Martinovic actively participated in the round table, as did the representatives of many institutions interested in participation in the project to research, conserve and present the shipwreck.

This was followed by a field workshop, during which the site’s existing status was documented with the help of cutting-edge technical aids. Using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the site’s wider area was recorded with multibeam sonar, while a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) was used to monitor the movements and work of divers. A series of professional inspections of the broad surface from which archaeological finds were intensively removed in the past ascertained the existence of lumber from the ship’s hull, entirely unprotected and exposed to the sea’s destructive impact and marine organisms, the existence of numerous fragments as well as whole objects from the ship’s cargo.

Test research in 2012

In June 2012, the systematic documentation of the status of the finds in the Local Heritage Museum in Biograd commenced, while trial underwater archaeological research encompassing a surface of 16 m2 was conducted from 25 June to 5 July. Items from the ship’s cargo were still confirmed among the elements of the ship’s structure. Particularly notable among them are wooden casks filled with cone-shaped ingots of lead carbonate used to produce the highest-quality white paint of natural origin.

In contrast to the former dearth of trained divers, suitable gear, methodological knowledge and research experience, today’s situation differs considerably, so underwater research is conducted under the constant supervision of experts, and precise documentation is compiled thanks to modern technical aids. The advantages of the current era do not diminish the value of the work done previously. Taking into account the threat of the site being thoroughly ransacked and then forgotten, the first researchers performed a heroic feat. It is only unfortunate that their efforts were not resumed far earlier, at least with regard to protection of the site, because the degradation that occurred over the past four decades would have been considerably smaller, and the quantity of salvaged items and data much greater.

Research campaigns from 2013 on

From the very beginning, the project rested on an interdisciplinary approach and international collaboration which grew and flourished over time. Given the obvious positive results of the undersea trial investigations and the archival research, as well as interest in the site’s significance that had been aroused at the European and global levels, the project “The Shipwreck at Gnalic – Mirror of Renaissance World”, which is rooted in collaboration between experts who can substantially contribute in their fields to the interpretation of the Gnalic finds in the Adriatic, Mediterranean, European and global contexts. 

Research in all fields continues to this day, mainly funded by the Ministry of Cultre and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the German Association for the Promotion of Underwater Archaeology (FUWA). A detailed analysis of the remains of the ship itself was an important facet of the project “AdriaS – Archaeology of Adriatic Shipbuilding and Seafaring”, which received financial support from the Croatian Science Foundation. Today, the research continues in the framework of the project “NEREAS – Numerical Reconstruction in the Archaeology of Seafaring”, funded by the same institution. Thus, the sole systematic archaeological investigation of a large merchant vessel from the 16th century, certainly built in Venice, which is under way at the islet of Gnalic, has begun to bring to light many intriguing and thus far unknown data that could not be found through the available archival materials.