Researchers have uncovered 2,100-year-old treasures linked to a Roman statesman who inspired some America’s Founding Fathers.
Turkish officials announced recently that divers investigating a shipwreck off the coast of Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea found a treasure trove of well-preserved dishes, Fox News reported Friday.
The vessel is believed to have sunk during a storm while journeying from Rhosus to Rome.
The items discovered at the site included over 100 plates, bowls and trays, and photos taken at the site showed the historical treasures stacked against one another as they lay on the seabed:
“These artifacts, which have survived in good condition to the present day because of the clay placed between them when they were packed into crates, preserve evidence of Anatolia’s production expertise and the Mediterranean’s trading history,” Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Rhosus was linked to the Roman statesman, Cicero, because he mentioned it in his writings, per the Fox article.
“Cicero, one of ancient Rome’s most celebrated orators and politicians, significantly influenced the U.S.’ Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson and John Adams,” the outlet noted.
In a 2025 video for the National Constitution Center, Arizona State University’s Colleen Sheehan said Cicero spoke about what it meant to have a republic and what people owed one another.
“At the base of all this there’s got to be things that connect us together as citizens, where we actually care about the good of each other. This is all through Cicero and his writings. I don’t know for sure if that’s what Jefferson was thinking about but I know that Jefferson’s friend Madison or James Wilson, very much thought about those things,” she said:
According to the Britannica website, Cicero is “remembered in modern times as the greatest Roman orator and the innovator of what became known as Ciceronian rhetoric.”
Professor of Classics and History at Northwestern University Taco Terpstra told Fox the recent discovery was quite special, noting the ceramics were not everyday dishes.
“This is for a high-end market, which is one reason why Cicero talks about these,” the professor explained, adding “It’s quite rare for all of it … [all] the lines of evidence to come together, like monetary, archeological, literary.”