Chryselephantine statuette of Pan and Dionysus

An exceptionally valuable item found inside a shipwreck a few metres from the port of Procchio, this small statuette is made from ivory, which was then covered with delicate gold leaf. In all probability it was a stopper for a bottle of precious perfume, due to be sold to a Roman aristocrat in the late 2nd century AD.

The consignee was certainly not in Procchio, given that the ship sank with the prow pointing out to sea, while its hold contained rocks and minerals from Elba. The ship was clearly ready to ply the seas along a Tyrrhenian cabotage route that stretched down the entire Italian peninsula, in search of markets for its goods.