The Ashmolean's major summer exhibition features more than 200 spectacular and unusual objects rescued from the bottom of the Mediterranean

Greek (Corinthian) helmet 7th‒6th century BC Bronze Height: 22.5 cm © Museo archeologico regionale di Camarin and A diver brings a Greek helmet to the surface © Giovanni Di Stefano, Museo archeologico regionale di Camarin
Frost trained as an artist in London and at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford and spent the first part of her career working as a designer in ballet. But her enduring passion was for diving.
In her book Under the Mediterranean (1963), she describes how she started out as a young woman by submerging herself in a well at a home in Wimbledon using a garden hose. During the 1940s she began to train as a diver in the south of France.
The French archaeologist, Frédéric Dumas, took Frost on her first dive to the wreck of a Roman ship at Anthéor on the south coast of France and she became convinced that the skills and methods practiced on land excavations could be adapted to maritime archaeology.

Torso of a warrior Roman, found off the coast of Marsala, 200‒1 BC Marble. © Museo archeologico regionale Lilibeo-Baglio Anselmi di Marsala
It is the treasures that she and other colleagues unearthed in the waters off Sicily – an Island where Ancient civilizations met and fought at the crossroads of the Mediterranean – that feature in Storms, Wars and Shipwrecks.
Exploring the roots of a multicultural heritage via more than 200 spectacular and unusual objects rescued from the bottom of the sea, the exhibition features a haul of treasures ranging from bronze battering rams once mounted on the prows of Roman warships to amphoras and sea worn marble busts.

A warship ram is raised from the seabed © RPM Nautical Foundation. Detail of a Warship ram Roman, before 241 BC Bronze. © Soprintendenza per i Beni culturali e ambientali del Mare, Palermo
But one of the most startling exhibits will be an example of a Byzantine ‘flatpack’ church.
In his efforts to fortify and regulate Christianity across his empire, The Emperor Justinian (circa 482–565) became a prolific builder of churches. From Constantinople he authorised the voyages of large stone-carrying ships, known as naves lapidariae, laden with prefabricated marble church interiors of carved stone from quarries around the Sea of Marmara (the ‘marble sea’) to sites in Italy and North Africa.
Remains of completed buildings can be seen today in Ravenna, Italy, in Cyprus and in Libya. But some of the ships carrying architectural pieces never made it to their intended destination. Heavy and slow, they became unbalanced and often sank during stormy weather.

Statuette of Reshef, God of Thunder and War Phoenician, found off the coast of Sciacca, about 1000 BC Bronze. © Museo archeologico regionale ‘Antonino Salinas’ di Palermo

“Visitors will be taken on a journey through Sicily’s fascinating history,” promises Dr Paul Roberts, the Ashmolean’s Keeper of the Department of Antiquities.
“This story will be told exclusively through spectacular finds from the sea, because it is the sea which has always been the lifeblood of the island’s unique and diverse culture.”
Storms, War and Shipwrecks: Treasures from the Sicilian Seas, June 21 – September 25 2016, The John Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Visit ashmolean.org.

Roman portrait heads 2nd‒3rd century AD Found in the sea off Syracuse © Museo archeologico regionale “Paolo Orsi” di Siracusa

Amphora with coral Roman, from the Levanzo shipwreck, AD 275‒300 Terracotta and organic remains Height: 55 cm; width: 75 cm © Soprintendenza del Mare/RPM Nautical Foundation. Divers approach ancient amphorae near the Aeolian Islands © Soprintendenza per i Beni culturali e ambientali del Mare, Palermo

Perfume jar Roman, from the Camarina shipwreck, AD 175‒200 Bronze and glass © Museo archeologico regionale di Camarina. Church utensils Byzantine, from the Plemmirio shipwreck, 6th-century AD Bronze © Museo archeologico regionale ‘Paolo Orsi’ di Siracusa

Pail with verse from the Koran Arab-Norman, 12th-century AD Bronze © Museo archeologico regionale Lilibeo Baglio-Anselmi di Marsala

Honor Frost was an expert on ancient anchors © Honor Frost Foundation

Byzantine Church ruin in Athrun, Libya © Vincent MICHEL, French Archaeological Mission in Libya

The Egadi Islands © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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looking forward to this exhibition - is it open every day ? At what times?