Identification of wood from Roman ships found in the docking site of Pisa (Italy)

Published Date
Journal of Cultural Heritage
Available online 23 August 2016, doi:10.1016/j.culher.2016.07.005
In Press, Corrected Proof — Note to users
Review

• Author 

• Gianna Giachi ^a,
• Chiara Capretti ^b,
• Simona Lazzeri ^b,
• Lorena Sozzi ^b,
• Stefano Paci ^d
• Marta Mariotti Lippi ^c,
• Nicola Macchioni ^b,,

• aSoprintendenza Archeologia della Toscana, Italy
• bIVALSA-CNR, Firenze, Italy
• cDipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
• dFlorence, Italy

Received 22 February 2016. Accepted 14 July 2016. Available online 23 August 2016.

Abstract

Archaeological excavations in the docking site of Pisa (Central Italy) unearthed several shipwrecks which dated back to the Roman time, from the Republican to the Imperial periods. The recent identification of the woods used for building ships D, E, H, I and P, in addition to data of the previous analysis of ships A, B, C, F, L, revealed the utilization of 18 different taxa. Wood from oaks, both deciduous and evergreen, is mostly represented. 6 different softwood timbers, mostly from maritime and umbrella pine, were also largely used. Some of the hulls were entirely realized with hardwoods, others with softwoods or using a combination of softwoods for planking (mostly pines) and different hardwoods for the frame. The selection of timber indicates a skilful knowledge of the technological properties of the different woods and their suitable utilization in the Roman vessels. The use of woods largely available in the territory surrounding the Pisa docking site, as demonstrated by pollen analysis, does not necessary indicate the local production and/or provenance of the ships, given the spread of the identified wood taxa throughout the North Mediterranean area.

Keywords

Pisa ancient shipwrecks

Wood identification

Waterlogged archaeological wood

Ship building

Wood technology

Wood utilization

---

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

 Table 1

Table 1.

Fig. 3.

 Table 2

Table 2.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author.

© 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Note to users: Corrected proofs are Articles in Press that contain the authors' corrections. Final citation details, e.g., volume/issue number, publication year and page numbers, still need to be added and the text might change before final publication.

Although corrected proofs do not have all bibliographic details available yet, they can already be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI , as follows: author(s), article title, journal (year), DOI. Please consult the journal's reference style for the exact appearance of these elements, abbreviation of journal names and use of punctuation.

When the final article is assigned to an issue of the journal, the Article in Press version will be removed and the final version will appear in the associated published issue of the journal. The date the article was first made available online will be carried over.

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1296207416301339