It’s the oldest “hand-sewn” boat in the Mediterranean, incredibly preserved over more than 3,000 years – and, in a delicate operation, a team of scuba divers are preparing to lift it out of the sea.
The Zambratija boat, named after the Adriatic bay in northern Croatia where it lies in shallow water, would originally have been 12m long. Seven metres of timbers 2.5m wide remain intact after three millennia under water.
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Dated to between the late 12th and late 10th century BC, the wreck is a unique example of the ancient shipbuilding tradition of Istria and Dalmatia.
The Zambratija wreck was first surveyed in 2014 by marine archaeologist Giulia Boetto from France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She identified it as a timber boat on which overlapping planks had been sewn together using rope, roots or willows, in the days before metal fastenings were readily available.
Some of the stitching remained visible and the frame was largely undamaged. Elm, alder and fir were the timbers used in the boat’s construction.
Fishers who had first reported seeing the boat lying 600m from the beach in 2008 had believed it to be a comparatively recent relic, and it would be some time before radiocarbon dating revealed it to be as ancient as it was.
Raised in sections
“Zambratija is not the oldest sewn boat in the world, ‘only’ from the Mediterranean – but it is exceptional,” Boetto told Divernet. “There are older sewn boats in Egypt, dated to the 3rd millennium BC, but these were river-boats for the Nile, not suitable for sailing in the Mediterranean.
“The Archaeological Museum of Istria decided to recover the wreck for a number of reasons, not least because it is in danger – shallow waters, close to the coast, a coastline that is changing due to climate change, which is causing erosion of the seabed, or extreme weather phenomena.
“This vessel is also a fantastic way of raising public awareness of their underwater cultural heritage.”
From 2 July the boat is being raised for detailed study by the museum with a team from the Centre Camille Jullian (CCJ), which is a research collaboration between the CNRS and Aix-Marseille University. The flattened vessel will be lifted in sections, to be reassembled in a bespoke supporting structure at the surface that will allow the scientists to reconstruct it in 3D.
They also hope to be able to obtain a more accurate construction date, identify the fibres used for sewing the timbers together, and scrutinise the wood-forming techniques used.
Once the analysis is complete, the Zambratija boat will be desalinated in Croatia and next year sent to the Arc-Nucléart restoration workshop in Grenoble, France. It is hoped that the fully restored vessel will eventually be exhibited in a new museum in Pula dedicated to Istria’s maritime heritage.
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