AGP-SMYDP0431

Graffito of two ships, located on the southern face of Pier A43, between Bay 31 and Bay 32, looking into the Basilica’s northern corridor. The earlier of the two vessels is the one incised at the bottom. With an elongated hull and a keel tapering upward at the prow and the stern, the ship is possibly sailing on port tack. The bulwark near the prow is decorated with a series of horizontal lines, not immediately identifiable. No oars, sail, or mast pertinent to this vessel are visible. The second ship, incised at a later time, is at the top and partially obliterates the earlier one. It is sailing on port tack, the two rear rudders very prominently incised in the shape of two large rhomboids with single thin lines as their poles. The prow is not preserved. The hull is rounded and the keel strongly rockered. The beginning of the central mast, rendered with one deeply incised and thick line, is visible right below a large lacuna in the plaster that has destroyed any possible traces of the sails or the roping. Both ships were incised in a layer of plaster that was covered at a later time by a second layer, onto which is painted dipinto DP43.2. This seems to corroborate the hypothesis that at least a portion of the incised drawings at the Basilica of Smyrna is to be dated to a phase that predates the one during which the dipinti were made.