In 1969 a sunken Greek ship had been discovered and ransacked by looters in the Straits of Messina near the village of Porticello. Shortly thereafter the University Museum was asked by the Antiquities Department of Calabria to undertake an emergency underwater excavation of the shipwreck, which yielded transport amphorae from a variety of sites as well as fragments of bronze statues. This merchant vessel, probably of Greek origin, sank or was scuttled between 415 and 385 B.C.