Historians have long speculated about an epic disaster that leveled a city and killed thousands. But there's been little evidence to support that theory β until now. Archaeologists recently discovered more than 50 acres 20 hectares of Roman ruins off the coast of northeastern Tunisia, a small country on the northern tip of Africa and situated on the Mediterranean Sea.
The discovery has researchers believing they may have finally found some convincing evidence that the city of Neapolis not to be confused with the Italian city by the same name was wiped out by a natural disaster about 1, years ago. In addition to streets and monuments, researchers found about tanks that would have been used to produce a garum, a fish-based fermented condiment commonly consumed in ancient Rome. Scientists wrote in a study in the journal Nature that a tsunami was caused by an earthquake that occurred in C.
There's no surefire way to know the extent of the quake since measuring tools didn't exist at the time, but scientists believe two separate tremors happened in succession and the larger one had a magnitude of 8. The resulting tsunami destroyed about 50, homes and killed approximately 5, people in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. And because the geological fault at the center of the earthquake was located off the coast of Crete, that Greek island was actually lifted up in certain areas by as much as 33 feet 10 meters.
Historian Ammianus Marcellinus recorded the event, and the newly found ruins reveal that there's much more to the story. The detail is significant; garum was a big deal throughout the Roman Empire, and as Italian archaeologist Claudio Giardino told NPR , it played a major role in the society's economy. So it is exactly like wine. The underwater findings of Neapolis and its abundant manufacturing materials indicate that the city was a major historical hub.
Neapolis β which means "new city" in Greek β was originally founded in the fifth century B. Experts believe that because the city failed to pledge allegiance to the Romans, there are very few written records documenting the details of life there. That means the new discovery is that much more important to understanding the full history of the era. If you want to re-create garum yourself, there's a cookbook for that: Food historians Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger's "The Classical Cookbook: Revised Edition" includes garum as a salt substitute and as a base for sauces and dips.
