In 2015, Italian archaeologists discovered a Roman shipwreck that was carrying thousands of jugs full of ancient Romans’ ketchup at that time – garum.
Garum was a salty fish sauce with a strong flavour, made from fermented fish. It was considered a delicacy of exquisite Roman cuisine and often replaced the expensive salt. The smelly fluid was mass-produced in factories in Spain and Portugal.
The wreck was found approximately 198 meters underwater close to the shores of Liguria in northwest Italy. The ship was about 98 meters long and dates back to the 1st/2nd century CE.
Scientists believe that the vessel carried between 2,000 and 3,000 amphoras or earthenware jars. It was to depart from the port of Cadiz in Spain, the famous production site of garum, and it was to arrive on purpose in Rome.
The almost two-thousand-year-old wreck is one of five Roman ships found in the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
