Archaeology News

Sunken Ships of Pisa & A Cache of Vintage Ships

Four well-preserved Roman ships have been found in Pisa, Italy, by builders digging the foundation for new offices at one of the city's train stations. Following Italian law, work was suspended and archaeologists were called in after the first ship was discovered.

One of the Roman ships found by builders working at a Pisa train station.

Moving quickly because construction could not resume until they were done, excavators found three more ships, cargo and other artifacts, and part of an ancient quay.

Potsherds found nearby date the ship to the mid-second century A.D. According to project director Stefano Bruni of the Archaeological Superintendency of Tuscany, the design of the hull suggests that it is a warship.

If this is the case, says Bruni, "it will be the first known imperial warship whose structure survives relatively intact, contributing immensely to knowledge of the Roman fleet."

This ship was empty, but the cargo of another vessel, dating from the first century B.C., was nearly intact. Amphoras (two of which were stolen from the excavation) contained a liquid residue (possibly wine); remains of cherries, plums, and olives; as well as sand from the Bay of Naples.

Another freighter's hull was very well preserved, but no cargo was found. Near a fourth, smaller boat, a wicker basket, a leather sandal, and a coil of rope were discovered.

Sixteenth-century histories mention a part of Pisa known as the Porto delle Conche (Port of the Basins), after an ancient inland harbor on the Auser River (now known as the Serchio). The location of the port, which no longer exists, was not known; Bruni speculates that it may at last have been rediscovered.

Conservators are encasing the hulls in resin so they can be moved, allowing construction to proceed. The city and the archaeological superintendency hope to build a special facility where the public can view the ongoing conservation, which is expected to take several years, before the ships are moved to a museum for permanent display.

A Cache of Vintage Ships

Nine Roman ships have been uncovered during construction at Pisa's San Rossore train station. Ship D (right), a small utilitarian vessel, is the best preserved.

Summoned to survey a construction site in Pisa, Italian archaeologist Stefano Bruni never imagined what he would find: nine well-preserved Roman ships--the largest group of ancient vessels ever discovered in a single place--and part of Pisa's classical port.
Eight months of patient testing had yielded little, and construction of an office building at the San Rossore train station was proceeding. Then, builders sinking a corrugated steel retaining wall to support the sides of the foundation pit realized they had bisected an ancient ship, nearly intact, its wooden frame and planks still held together by copper nails.
During the next five months, eight others were found, dating between the second century B.C. and the fifth century A.D., from Pisa's florescence as a Republican naval naval base to the end of the Roman Empire. Bruni's original cores had stopped in what seemed like sterile soil three inches shy of the discovery of a lifetime.

Clad in a professorial tweed jacket, pipe in hand, Bruni, of the Archaeological Superintendency of Tuscany, surveys his domain with the confidence of a man whose name is made. The vast foundation pit, nearly 300 feet long and 150 feet wide, stretches out before us, a temporary concrete floor interrupted at intervals by green corrugated plastic roofs supported on scaffolding.

Beneath each shelter, archaeologists from the Florence-based contract firm Co.Idra, working under Bruni's supervision, are excavating the ships and documenting the finds. Journalists from all over Europe have flocked to see the ships, but despite the media attention Bruni remains firmly focused on their archaeological significance.

"This find is extremely important not just on a local level," he tells me. "We have now discovered part of the harbor of one of the greatest ancient Mediterranean ports, with ships practically intact."

Study of the vessels will allow marine archaeologists to add to their knowledge of Roman shipbuilding techniques, while analysis of their cargoes--including wine, olives, and fruit--will contribute valuable new data to the study of classical trade.

Cargoes like wine, olives, and fruit were transported in amphoras, thousands of whose sherds were found at the site.

With at least two sheltered harbors, Pisa was an important Roman naval asset, and ancient sources mention fleets setting out from it for Gaul and Spain during the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.). Thanks to Bruni's excavations, the area of San Rossore is now recognized as site of the Porto delle Conche (Port of the Basins), a small tidal lake near the mouth of the Auser River mentioned by the sixteenth-century historian Raffaello Roncioni.

In antiquity the Porto delle Conche was evidently one of Pisa's harbors, and, as in any harbor, some vessels sank or were abandoned at anchor. During the past 2,000 years, large amounts of silt washing downriver were deposited on the basin floor, covering and protecting ships as they sank and eventually filling the basin altogether.

Builders discovered the first wreck when it was bisected by a steel retaining wall installed to support the sides of the foundation pit. It has now been reburied to protect it until it can be moved; before that, excavators had to keep it constantly moist to prevent the wood from deteriorating.

Though study of the ships is only beginning, the nine found so far seem to be utilitarian vessels like coastal freighters and small harbor craft rather than men of war.

The first wreck to be found, dubbed ship A by the excavators, was empty, but the vessel's structure is exceptionally well preserved. Floor timbers (which ran from side to side across the bottom of the ship), stringers (timbers running from bow to stern), and hull planks survive practically intact for a length of 25 feet.

Neither bow nor stern was found, but the ship extends beyond the walls of the foundation pit and one end may exist in unexcavated soil. The exposed portion has been reburied to protect it until it can be moved to a conservation facility; the unexcavated part will be uncovered in the future.

Based on stratigraphy and associated finds, Bruni believes ship A dates from the mid-second century A.D., when Pisa had dwindled to a local port serving a stretch of the Ligurian coast.

According to Lionel Casson, a specialist in ancient ships and shipping, the vessel was at least twice as long as the exposed 25-foot portion, an "average small coastal freighter" that could have hauled cargo of any kind from port to port along the coast.

That the ship was empty suggests several potential scenarios: its cargo was unloaded before it sank; amphoras or other durable goods were recovered in antiquity shortly after it sank; or sacks of grain or other perishables decomposed, leaving no trace.

Pieces of wood and rope are the remains of a winch found with ship B

The second vessel to be found, ship B, is preserved for a length of about 16 feet near the bow. "The right wall survives with the framing, parts of the left side, and half of the oarsmen's seats," says Bruni. Fragments of amphoras found in the same levels indicate that the boat dates from the late second or early first century B.C.

The boat has been excavated, and the Turin-based conservation firm Icnos has covered the surviving part of the hull with sheets of plastic and encased it in a hard, form-fitting fiberglass shell.

This shell will maintain the shape of the wood, soft from two millennia underwater and then underground, when the boat is eventually moved to the conservation facility.

Near the ship was found a wooden winch with ropes still in place; a leather sandal and a wicker basket also survived, personal items that may have belonged to a member of the crew.

Technicians apply protective fiberglass shell to ship C.

The third, ship C, survives for a length of about 20 feet, including several beams (timbers running from side to side) in addition to the planking and framing. Along one of the beams is a graffito reading "O D A [?] ...,"

now meaningless but perhaps a product of some Roman mariner's idle hours.

Right- Inscription "O D A [?]..."

From one gunwale a thole pin still protrudes, the ancient equivalent of an oarlock, consisting of a wooden peg to which an oar would have been loosely fastened with a loop of rope. When I was inPisa, Icnos was giving ship C its fiberglass shell: Technicians had covered the wood with large sheets of clear plastic, inserting foam rubber pads in spaces between pieces of wood where the fiberglass could not fit.

Left-Thole pin (ancient equivalent of oarlock)

In a process recalling the make-a-piñata papier-mâché projects of grade-school art class (but much more precise), they were layering one-foot squares of fiberglass cloth three or four thick over the plastic, painting them with liquid resin to hold them together. As the resin dries, it creates a hard shell capable of maintaining the ship's shape during transportation.                                       

Right- Conservator paints fiberglass square with resin.

Ship D capsized before sinking; the dirt-filled area in the center represents a gash in its bottom.

Ship D is the best preserved of the lot. Some 46 feet long and 20 feet wide, it was found capsized, its frame and deck in mint condition and its hull surviving except for a portion of the bottom. Material from the same levels suggests that the boat dates from sometime after the first decades of the second century A.D.             

As reported in "Sunken Ships of Pisa," May/June 1999, several features of the hull suggested at first that it was a warship: the shallow draft, typical of ancient men-of-war; the shape of the prow, which could have carried a ram; and the presence of a platform extending from one gunwale, similar to platforms visible on ancient images of warships.

But, says Casson, the shape and structure of the boat indicate that it is rather a work boat used for daily chores like carrying cargo between quays and large ships moored farther out in the harbor, or running errands up and down canals.

Workboats had shallow drafts so they could negotiate small waterways. The ship's length-to-breadth ratio of two to one would be suitable for such craft, while war galleys normally clock in at ten to one. Likewise its simple construction, lacking proper framing and having only roughly finished timbers, is telltale.

What is not clear is how the boat was propelled. Side platforms would make sense on craft that were poled rather than rowed or sailed, but a verdict will have to wait until the boat has been fully excavated and archaeologists can tell whether it had a mast, thole pins, and oarsmen's seats.

The outside of the boat has been encased in fiberglass, allowing excavations to continue inside without risking collapse. Already archaeologists have exposed the beams and planks of the inverted deck and the walls of a hatchway through which the crew would have accessed the hold.

In one place excavators kept digging for several feet beneath the boat, where they discovered the fragmentary remains of yet another vessel. After excavation of the interior is finished, the whole ship will be moved in one piece to the conservation lab.

A jumble of amphora sherds and a few scraps of wood are all that remain of the so-called ghost ship.

The sixth ship, preserved over a length of 26 feet, is most remarkable for its cargo, primarily amphoras stacked in rows and still in place. According to Bruni, "The amphoras, of various types and mostly sealed, contained some liquid residues--now under analysis, but resembling wine--cherry, plum, and olive pits, and sand.

Analysis of the sand and study of the cobbles [used as ballast or to prop up amphoras stacked in the hold], many of Vesuvian lava, show that the cargo originated somewhere on the Bay of Naples."

Why would amphoras be filled with sand? Pozzolana, a red dust from Pozzuoli on the Bay of Naples, was used in the imperial period for concrete that would set under water. "Objects related to life on board were also plentiful," say Bruni: "pottery cups, lamps, a glass cup, leather objects, and coins."

Of the three other ships, little so far is known. Excavators called one the "ghost ship" because they toiled for weeks on its cargo of amphoras, finding only scraps of the ship itself.

Two others are in the very first stages of excavation. In addition, a short section of a stone quay has been found, along with a mass of cobbles (probably discarded ballast) from a beach near Portoferraio on the island of Elba, 60 miles down the coast.

Conclusion

Bruni expects the excavations to continue through, a year after the first ship surfaced. By then all of the vessels now known should have been excavated, encased in fiberglass, and moved to the conservation lab.

But, and this is a big but, more vessels may be found--one is already known beneath ship D, and others may lie in layers so far untested--and this could prolong the excavation.

Once in the lab, the ships' wood will be treated in preparation for eventual public display; the archaeological superintendency and the city government hope to build a special facility where people can view the ongoing restoration.

The land around Pisa had marble quarries, according to Strabo, and grew high-quality grain; these products would have been shipped out of its harbors, much of it to Rome.

Everything Pisa imported would also have passed through its harbors, from wine and olive oil to frankincense and myrrh. Bruni's work is admittedly in its early stages, and the results are preliminary. Nonetheless, useful details are emerging of trade up and down the west coast of Italy and of shipboard life, a picture that complements and tests what is known from historical sources.

In the end, each boat will tell its own story--of a voyage to Pozzuoli to pick up construction materials, of a quick jaunt to Elba long before Napoleon's exile, of a sailor at loose ends carving his mark in the timbers of his ship.

*http://www.archaeology.org