12 minute read
Archaeological Park BAIAE
Archaeological Park Baiae
Text and photos Marcin Trzciński
Further north, no one thought about Brexit yet, because the Brit-in project was just being implemented. In the east, however, due to partisandisputes, we had to wait more than a thousandyears for the construction of Mirmiłowo to begin.It was in those times, a little more to the south, thatfive years after the famous "Alea iacta est" (The dieis cast) Julius Caesar whispered "Et tu Brute contrame?" (Even you, Brutus?), thus completing his collection of famous quotes and beginning a period of successive internal wars within the borders of the Roman Empire.
In 37 BC during the civil war between Octavian Augustus and Sextus Pompey, the construction of a large port for the imperial war fleet began in the Bay of Naples. The work initiated by Marcus Agrippa, Augustus' trusted friend, consisted of connecting with a navigable channel the lakes Avernus and Lucrinus and the waters of the bay between the small towns of Baiae and Puteoli. The presence of the fleet caused the rapid development of the region, the construction of warehouses, cisterns, docks and workshops. However, quite soon, that is in 12 BC, the army left the region, making it available for civilian purposes. The proximity of the port and the picturesque location of neighbouring towns, combined with the presence of warm thermal waters in the area, led in the following years to the development of the region recognized as a "resort" for the well-known patrician families. On the slopes of the mountains, beautiful villas, bathhouses and numerous temples were created. Here stood the "second homes" of the gens Claudia and Piso (in later years, for conspiring against Nero, their property was forfeited to the emperor), while Cicero and Horace were known to visit.
In 39 AD, by order of emperor Caligula, to whom a fortune teller predicted that "Caligula has no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae", an over two-mile long pontoon bridge was constructed across the bay linking Baiae with Puteoli. And the emperor duly rode over the bridge on horseback… When on July the 10th 138 AD the ailing emperor Hadrian was dying in Baiae, he could not suppose that the empire that was then at the height of its power would cease to exist within a few centuries… But it did. The fall of the Roman Empire, barbarian invasions and the plundering of the area in the 8th century by a Muslim army, which after gaining control of the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Sardinia launched invasions on the mainland of the Apennine Peninsula, triggered the demise of the region. Tectonic activity occurring in this part of the Mediterranean basin caused gradual slide of the tectonic plate deep into the sea, so that now the neighbourhood of the former patrician villas is located about five metres below the surface of the water…
Finally, it was going to begin! Eating a pizza in a bar located on a beach, empty at this time of the year, I could not wait for the afternoon dive. The deeper dives in the morning enabled me to "warm up" and take a few photos. Now we were about to make much shallower dives, but in what a place! In the Underwater Archaeological Park of Baiae! In the ruins of a villa from 2,000 years ago! So what if the water was not yet the best and the clouds were still obscuring the sun? In a few dozen minutes I was going to reach our destination and to "touch" history again.
Kair confirmed that the most spectacular part of the excavations, ie. Ninfeo di Claudio, would be the first place to go to. That was where there were beautiful floors and sculptures that I had seen on the few pictures available on the net. It was so cool! But first you had to pull on the wetsuit (still wet after
the morning dives). Brrr! Fortunately, we did not have to go far, so after two minutes we were at the foot of the rock, in the shadow of which we were to dive. I glanced down over the RIB's side, but the water was so muddy that even though the sunken villas were located at a depth of only five metres, nothing was visible. At the bottom it will certainly be better, I thought. So I slipped into the water and after getting the photo equipment, I began to descend towards the bottom. The water was cool and not very clear, but there was no need to panic. The visibility reached a few metres.
After a while Kair, Wojtek and Adam arrived. We were all together and we could move on. In a broad line, a metre behind our guide, we moved towards the still invisible ruins. Invisible? I looked more closely at the small hill on the left. Its shape was too regular for Mother Nature to have created it. Undoubtedly, it was manmade and a few centuries ago it was the foundation of a house. Looking around, I noticed more and more fragments of the old residence. We swam between two walls which stood some five metres apart and once were probably tall and ornate, but now they were rising only fifty centimetres above the bottom. Though… The situation clearly changed in the front. Because of the poor visibility, it seemed that the corridor we were in all of a sudden changed into a wide hall – nymphaeum. On both sides there were statues of gods and members of the gens Claudia. I swam to the bottom, to the feet of the figure of Dionysius,
the god of wine and grapevine. I waved at Kair so that she would go around the figure from the back and swim up to it from the left. She looked nice in the full-face mask she used for her frequent underwater work. A few camera flashes later I asked her to repeat the whole scene from the beginning with the approach from the back. I wanted to be sure that at least a few photos will be ok.
Moving from figure to figure, I photographed with passion. The king of Ithaca, Odysseus, and the statue of Antonia Minor, the mother of the emperor Claudius. The time was running out relentlessly, and our weather window did not give us a chance for lengthy exploration of the excavations. Therefore, rushed by our guide, I followed her towards the next rooms of the villa. Stop! Kair turned cautiously over the gritty, pebble-covered bottom, and began to brush the outer layer with her hand. She stirred up so much mud that after a while there was almost nothing to see. But the gentle current began to move the cloud obscuring the view somewhere to the side and, while initially vaguely, with every second I could see the exposed floor better. It was beautiful, made of
tiny white pebbles. The fish attracted by the movement began to spin over the bottom, searching for food. I wanted to wait a bit longer, but Kair moved on, leaving the site unveiled. She gave us a sign that we would be back there in a moment.
She was right, we had to let this dust settle a little. Especially as we did not move far, only to the neighbouring room, not even using the door for this purpose, but by swimming over the wall. The bottom of the room was covered with thick mats pressed by big stones. We removed a few and after uncovering the material… I was speechless. A smooth floor was made of beautiful marble. Damaged, indeed, in some places, by the passage of time and the action of water, but still preserved in a surprisingly good condition. Several more photos and we had to go back. But first you had to tidy up after yourself, covering both floors.
That evening was very successful. Not only because of the fact that the diving put us in a great mood, but also the food served in the "Da Bernardo" trattoria at via Montenuovo Licola Patria turned out to be very tasty. The beginning was excellent, when the owner of the restaurant, grim as a Neapolitan mafioso served us a platter of bruschetta wonderfully smelling of garlic, olive oil and fresh tomatoes. Such a starter "on the house". And then it was even better. No wonder that when I finally found myself in bed, I could not sleep for a long time. Despite the fatigue, my full stomach (at Wojtek's insistence we finished the feast in an adjacent ice cream shop, eating large portions of gellato) and the prospect of subsequent dives kept me awake. But in the end I fell asleep…
Sunshine! There was not much sunshine coming through the closed shutters, but enough to say that the day was going to be great. Like a fish on the ice, I began to bustle around the room, preparing the photo equipment for the tasks ahead. Finally, after breakfast, we headed towards Centro Sub Campi Flegrei. Kair was already there, so we did not hesitate to get our diving equipment out of the base building. I really felt like diving. The smooth sea and the clear sky made us feel optimistic. It was definitely our day! The first place to see according to the plans of our guide was Portus Julius. Founded in the thirties BC, the port was the result of the war led by the emperor Octavian Augustus against Sextus Pompey. At the request of Marcus Agrippa, Octavian's adviser, the lakes Avernus and Lucrinus were connected by a navigable channel, and the huge naval base created in this way was named after Julius Caesar. It was a nice plan, but I had to intervene. Especially after I learned that there would be a patch of bad weather in the afternoon. Portus Julius was incredibly interesting, but on the available pictures it did not look even in a quarter so good as the flooded villas located in the northern part of the gulf. It took a while before the approved plan of diving (and the issued permits) could be changed, but persistence sometimes pays off. According to the new plan, we were to start with Ninfeo di Claudio, seen yesterday, so that for a second dive we could swim to the nearby Villa Protorio. The port was relegated to the third place, and to the fourth the Smokey Reef, a geological phenomenon, a place where gases from the rocks of the tectonically active interior of the earth are released outside. Oh, such a natural jacuzzi.
We set off and after a moment we were there. I jumped into the water first to check the dome port that I installed in the morning on the wide-angle converter. It had fogged up the day before and I wondered if it would be better now. Unfortunately, it was not. Already at two metres deep, it began to fog up until it fogged up completely. Eh… I swam to the bottom and having chosen a large mooring stone for my workshop, I reached into the jacket for the hex key that I wisely had brought with me. I loosened the screws and then carefully, so as not to lose any, I started to take them out of the converter case. Phew, ready. The only thing left to do was to remove the converter but it was stuck to the port by water pressure. I wrestled with it for a moment, nervously glancing at the divers hovering nearby. They were waiting for me, and I was taking their precious time. Well, that nonsense was pointless. I swam upwards, pulling at the converter, and at the depth of two metres I finally succeeded. The water poured into the dome, and I could separate it from the UWL-H100. I fell to the bottom, packed all the "toys" and we could move on. First, as we had already agreed on the surface, we swam towards the floors. We were going to reveal the sculptures and wait for the water to clear.
However, before we completed cleaning the sculptures, Kair stopped above the floor and began to search through it. I did not hurry, but it took far too long. And in addition, Wojtek, who so far stayed in the back, lay down in front of her at the bottom and snapped pictures. What was going on? I descended to them and I was surprised to see a small octopus hidden under a stone. Well, yes. How silly of me! Now I had to try hard to capture something in the shot, as Wojtek already took the best position for photos. Hugging to his side, I tried to capture something. One close-up, another one. Okay, maybe a wide angle? Both the octopus and Kair hanging
behind it? I screwed on a wide angle lens, which I had taken off just a moment earlier, and put the camera to my eye. A trial photo to set the parametres. I checked. It was ok, though the frame was too tight. I put the camera back to my eye again and this time framed the photo differently. Oh yes, great! I started to press the shutter button when I saw a sudden movement in the viewfinder. The nervous cephalopod got fed up with us and took off. And I was left without a photo. Eh… Well, It was time to move towards the sculptures waiting for us in the next room.
Hopping into the water over Villa Protiro I was already cold. But it was here that the most beautiful floors in the whole excavation site were to be found. Using the method from the first dive, we started unveiling them. In this case, however, what I saw was even more impressive. I looked at the beautifully decorated floors, with mosaics arranged in white and black stone. How beautiful it looked! In fact, wherever I moved, something interesting appeared. A fragment of a cobbled street running between the villas, or a floor, or fragments of heating systems in the bath.
The first finds in the Baiae region took place in the 1950s. When a few years later, as a result of a storm, the front of Punta Epitaffio slipped into the water, works were carried out, as a result of which the first of the statues,e.g. Odysseus, were discovered. But it was not until the eighties that fur- ther works began, which resulted in finding more statues in the apse. The excavated sculptures are presented in a museum located in the castle towering over the bay. And in the water, exact replicas of the monuments were set up, made with the same technique, the same material and with damage corresponding to the originals. However, all other elements of the underwater landscape remained antique. Floors, buildings, heating systems, etc.
That was all I knew about the underwater wonders of the Baiae Underwater Archaeological Park. And I saw little more. Just one extra afternoon dive in the already rough waters at Portus Julius. I was not able to convince myself to do the next one on the Smoky Reef. It was too choppy. Only Wojtek and Adam went there as I watched the RIB leap on the waves towards the centre of the bay. The sky was dangerous and steel-blue again. In a few hours it was sure going to rain…
When we were leaving the hotel on Saturday morning, it was raining cats and dogs. Or even worse. The grey, autumn landscape outside the window was not what we wanted to see. Well, such a whim of nature. Of the planned sixteen dives, I only did six. There was not enough luck. But it was not all bad. After all, we had our own weather window. And we made the best of our time.
