A 2,300-Year-Old Shipwreck Off Croatia’s Vis Island Carried Greek Fine Pottery

A Hellenistic shipwreck in Gnjilna Bay, off Vis Island in Croatia, preserves about six metres of wooden hull and a cargo of Greek fine pottery. The Croatian Conservation Institute (Hrvatski restauratorski zavod) announced the findings on 4 October 2026 after investigations from 2023 to 2025.

What divers found

The wreck lies near the town of Komiža on Croatia’s Dalmatian coast. Archaeologists recorded about six metres of preserved hull, including part of the keel and attached planking, and a lead component from a ship’s anchor of the Haldane II A type. The pottery includes skyphoi, kantharoi, askoi, bowls, plates, salt dishes and aryballoi, along with Corinthian type A’ and type B amphora fragments and animal bones. A coin from ancient Pharos dating to the 4th century BCE was also recovered.

Possible sailors’ marks

Some black-glazed vessels carry inscriptions. The institute suggests they may be abbreviated personal names or ownership marks. That interpretation is tentative.

How old it is

The wreck dates to roughly the 4th or 3rd century BCE, in the Hellenistic period, which makes it about 2,300 years old. That range rests on the amphora fragments and the anchor type.

Why it matters

The institute describes the assemblage as the first identified shipwreck with finds of Greek fine pottery. The report does not say how wide that claim is, so we repeat it as the institute’s wording. The drinking vessels link the wreck to Issa, the Greek colony founded on Vis in the 4th century BCE and later known for its wine.

Who worked on it

Jurica Bezak of the Department of Underwater Archaeology at the Croatian Conservation Institute led the investigations. Local diving centres around Vis helped identify and protect the site. This wreck was also covered in the press in July 2025, so the October 2026 report is a fuller account of a site that was already known.

Sources

Arkeonews, 11 October 2026, reporting the Croatian Conservation Institute announcement (hrz.hr, “Helenistički brodolom u uvali Gnjilna na otoku Visu”). We could not open the institute’s page, so these details rest on the Arkeonews report of it.