Discovered by divers from the French Navy Diving School in 1967, the archaeological investigations of the Roman wreck at Madrague de Giens constituted the first large-scale, "truly scientific underwater excavation[s] carried out in France".

[5] The vessel wrecked at Madrague de Giens measured around 40 metres in length;[1] has a "wine glass" section which would have given better ability to sail to windward;[6] displayed extended raking of the stem and stern; and had two masts.

In the summer of 1972 a team of maritime archaeologists of the Archaeological Institute, run jointly in Aix-en-Provence (France) by the University of Provence and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Centre for Scientific Research or CNRS)[1] began what was planned as three years of work on the recently discovered Roman wreck at Madrague de Giens.

Unbeknownst to the team of diver-archaeologists who first began documenting the wreck, the Madrague de Giens vessel would soon be revealed as one of the "largest ancient ships whose remains have ever been found under the sea".

These excavations established the approximate age of the wreck (around the middle of first century BCE) and determined the cargo the ship was carrying at the time of its sinking.

A 4-metre unexcavated area, deemed to be of little interest and not worth the time it would take to excavate, was left between the centre and stern of the wreck as the archaeologists moved to the extreme front of the ship.

[2] The stern was abandoned in favour of the bow as what had already been uncovered suggested that parallels might possibly be made between the Madrague de Giens wreck and classical iconography and the archaeologists wished to explore this further.

[2] With the bow uncovered it was clear that the shape and proportions of the ship were indeed similar to images created at the time of its wrecking, particularly that of the Ocean God mosaic in the Themetra baths in Tunisia.

[4] With the extreme front of the ship recorded, archaeologists moved back towards the centre of the wreck, beginning at the rearmost portion of the 'front' section and working forwards.

[4] By the end of excavations in 1982 almost all of the wreck had been uncovered, revealing a ship with a concavely profiled bow and a convex stern; a sharp, prominent keel; two masts; and a heavy cargo load,[2] a shape well attested by iconography but not common in the Roman world.

[1] Comprehensive stereoscopic photographic recording was undertaken across the site at a number of levels and the hull was carefully examined and partly dismantled to determine how it was built.

During the excavations Pomey created a detailed, scale plan of the hull which he then compared with a selection of images showing ships from around the same time period as the wreck.

[8] An alternative proposed estimate of the size of the ship, which modelled the likely hull lines, gives a cargo carrying capacity of 320 tons, which equates to 6,400 amphoras.

[4] A strongly curved hull profile and the depth of the keel reduced leeway, so indicating that this ship was designed to have better windward performance than many of its contemporaries.

[6] This hull design is characterized by a reverse stempost with a cutwater,[4] enabling the vessel to compensate for its large, non-specialized, powerful square sails and giving it speed.

[3] Potter's stamps belonging to Publius Veveius Papus have been found on these amphorae indicating that they were an export from Terracina, a wine-producing area in Southern Italy,[3] where he is known to have had a workshop.