stock-weighted anchors, as the preference for crown- weighted anchors increased. In fact, the victory of iron over wood may have been more about the efficiency of crown-weighted anchors over stock-weighted anchors than issues of the weakness or shorter durability of wood. Peter B. Campbell Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ UK RPM Nautical Foundation, 7009 Shrimp Road, Key West, Florida 33040 USA Acknowledgements The author would like to thank project collaborators including RPM Nautical Foundation, Albanian Institute for Archaeology, and Albanian Center for Marine Research, specifically principal investigators Dr Jeff Royal and Dr Adrian Anastasi, George Robb, Howard Phoenix, Auron Tare, Ardiola Alikaj, Enkeleida Qendro, and sharp-eyed Derek Smith. References Benoit, F., 1961, L’Épave du Grand Congloué à Marseille. Gallia supplement xiv, Paris. Casson, L., 1991, The Ancient Mariners: Seafaring and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times. 2nd edn, Princeton. Casson, L., 1995, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. 2nd edn, Baltimore. Frost, H., 1972, The discovery of a Punic ship, IJNA 1, 113–17. Galili, E., Sussman, V., Stiebel, G. and Rosen, B., 2010, A Hellenistic/Early Roman Shipwreck Assemblage off Ashkelon, Israel, IJNA 39.1, 125–45. Haldane, D., 1984, The Wooden Anchor, unpublished Master’s dissertation, Dept of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station. Haldane, D., 1986, Wooden anchor arm construction, IJNA 15.2, 163–6. Haldane, D., 1990, Anchors of Antiquity, The Biblical Archaeologist 53.1, 19–24. Kapitän, G., 1984, Ancient anchors—technology and classification, IJNA 13.1, 33–44. Knight, C., 1833, The Penny Cyclopedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol. 1. London. Lamboglia, N., 1964, La Campagna 1963 sul relitto di Punta Scaletta all’Isola de Giannutri, Rivista di Studi Liguri 30.1, 229–57. Maggiani, A., 1982, Isola d’Elba, Bolletino d’Arte, 4th Supplement Archeologia Subaquea, 62–4. Royal, J., 2012, The Illyrian Coastal Exploration Program (2007–09): the Roman and Late-Roman Finds and their Contexts, American Journal of Archaeology, in press. A Roman Nautical Lead Brazier: its decoration and origin, and comparable coastal finds O ne of the most unusual technological artefacts present on Roman ships was the lead brazier (Fig. 1). About 20 such braziers have been recovered off the coast of Israel, most of them off the Carmel coast, with others from off Tel Ridan, Ash- kelon and Yavneh-Yam (Fig. 2) (Galili and Sharvit, 1996; 1999a; 1999b; 1999c; Galili et al., 2000; Rosen and Galili, 2007; Galili et al., 2009; Galili and Rosen, 2011, Galili and Rosen, forthcoming). These inge- niously designed artefacts were invented in Antiquity, by master-craftsmen, to solve the problem of maintain- ing a cooking-fire at sea. Cooked food and warm drinks are important in maintaining the health, stamina and morale of those aboard. But ships are exposed to fire-raising winds, and carry flammable materials such as wood, rope and sailcloth. Any acci- dent involving a shipboard fire may end by destroying the ship and everything aboard. The inventors of the lead brazier aimed at mitigating such danger. These artefacts are not known, certainly not in such quantity and variety, from any other time and place in Antiquity. None has ever been found on land, where it could have been associated with a known cultural context. Consequently there are unanswered questions as to where, when and by whom these braziers were invented, designed and manufactured. This note describes a decorated lead brazier, how it was manu- factured, and the exceptional decoration, which will be Figure 1. Cross-section of a nautical brazier in use. (E Galili) NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 41.2 416 © 2012 The Authors. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology © 2012 The Nautical Archaeology Society