The President of the Alicante Provincial Council, Luisa Pastor, presented yesterday at the Archaeological Museum the exhibition "Deltebre I. A Shipwreck Story"in which the artefacts salvaged from a British navy shipsunk in the mouth of the Ebro in 1813, among which was found a bottle of Fondillón wine from the province. The exhibition, which can be visited from today until 11 January 2015is the result of the joint work of the Museu d'Arqueologia -Centre d'Arqueologia Subaquàtica de Catalunya i Girona, the MARQ and the Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Vinos de Alicante.
The tour offers a complete overview of the salvaged remains of the English wreck with about a hundred of everyday objectsamong them, the bottle of wine from Alicante, which when it was found in 2008 remained intact and sealed. This bottle, although part of the Deltebre exhibition, will be exhibited during its stay at the MARQ, as part of the exhibition "Wine in Alicante".with which the provincial institution and the PDO wanted to delve into the province's wine-making history and link the two exhibitions.
The president of the Provincial Council inaugurated the exhibition, accompanied by the deputy for Culture, Juan Bautista RosellóThe president of the PDO, Antonio Miguel NavarroThe exhibition is sponsored by the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Miquel Molins, and the commissioner of the same, Gustau Vivar.
Pastor stressed that "This is an exceptional exhibition as the Deltebre I is one of the few archaeological ships that has not been plundered, which has made it possible to learn about a fascinating episode in history, with objects that have been kept in a very good state of conservation. Moreover, this is the first time that a sample of underwater remains has been taken without concluding the excavation; there is still much to be discovered and the technical teams are still working on it.".
The president also wished to highlight the intense line of collaboration between the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia and the MARQ, a relationship with a very good rapport that I hope will provide us with many more joint projects in the future.
For his part, the president of the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Miquel Molins, insisted on the need to to join forces between public and private institutions to maintain the level of quality, in this sense, as sponsors, we begin a new journey with the MARQ that we hope will bear very good fruit.
The history of wine in Alicante, the siege that Tarragona suffered by sea during the 'French War', the type of cargo of a military transport ship or what life was like on board are some of the aspects that can be contemplated from today at the MARQ.
The exhibition also includes various weapons that were used in that conflict -pumps,grenades, belts,powder blocks or ammunition of different calibres- and objects of navigation found in the officers' quarters from sextant filters, the captain's seal or compasses to clothing such as any of the crew's boots or shoes.
Gustau Vivar emphasised the richness of the find, as Deltebre I is one of the few ships found Until now in Catalonia that has not suffered any plunder. This vessel was part of the convoy military officer who acted in the siege of Tarragona with the intention of preventing French supplies and dividing the peninsula in two. However, this attack proved to be a failure and during the retreat of the ships, five of them ran aground in the gorges of the Ebro. The remains were found by a local fisherman two hundred years laterThe archaeological work to recover more artefacts is still ongoing.
The exhibition, which is complemented by the edition of a book by Carlota Pérez Reverte on the shipwreck, comes to complete the offer MARQ offers this summer, at full capacity, with the Chinese exhibition on the Han Dynasty and the "Wine in Alicante" exhibition, in addition to the permanent galleries.
