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Ancient Greek vessel docks for Pompey refit

By Andrew Johnson

Sunday, 18 January 2009

The most complete ancient Greek ship ever found – which is being painstakingly pieced back together by marine archaeology experts in Portsmouth – is shown here as it would probably have looked when it sailed around the Greek islands at the time of Homer.

Discovered in silt off the coast of Sicily, the vessel is believed to be around 2,500 years old. It arrived in boxes at the Mary Rose Centre in Portsmouth Harbour last week for what is expected to be a 10-year programme of preservation and reconstruction.

Archaeologists believe the craft was heading for Gela, then a Greek colony, when it was caught in a storm and sank with its cargo. Charles Barker, of the Mary Rose Centre, said: "It has an elm keel, an oak frame and pine planking. It is the most complete Greek trading vessel yet found."

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[info]eocine wrote:
Sunday, 18 January 2009 at 12:03 pm (UTC)
Do you think you could actually either post the picture or a link to it?
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[info]macrovertigo wrote:
Monday, 19 January 2009 at 02:07 am (UTC)
does the Mary Rose Ctr have a website where one can follow progress of the work on my ship?
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Homer didn't live 2,500 years ago
[info]garycorby wrote:
Monday, 19 January 2009 at 08:47 am (UTC)
Interesting article! But, the vessel can't be both 2,500 years old and have sailed at the time of Homer. Although Homer's date is controversial, he cannot be less than 2,800 years ago and likely much older. 2,500 years ago lands right on top of the Persian Wars, Aeshylus and the birth of staged drama.

It might seem 300+ years doesn't make much odds, but hey, there's not much difference between the wooden sailing ships of the 1700s and flying to the moon, is there? The difference in sailing technology between your two dates is huge. In Homer's time, the state of the art was probably not much better than a tub with a few tens of oars, at the most, and that would be stretching it. By 2,500 years ago, the super powers had triremes with 170+ oars in three rows; long thin vessels that could hit 14 knots even without raising their square rigged sails.

Since the Greeks probably had not colonised Sicily in Homer's time, I'm guessing the correct of the two dates in your article is the 2,500 years old.
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re. Mary Rose Website
[info]neocuriosus wrote:
Monday, 19 January 2009 at 12:13 pm (UTC)
The Mary Rose Website is at:-
http://www.maryrose.org/

.. but so far there is no mention of the much older Greek vessel ..
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re. Picture Link
[info]neocuriosus wrote:
Monday, 19 January 2009 at 12:23 pm (UTC)
The Mary Rose Website is at:-
http://www.maryrose.org/
.. but so far there is no mention of the much older Greek vessel ..

There are some pictures and much more detail at:-
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh/ART24950.html
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Interesting post
[info]msmithe wrote:
Saturday, 31 October 2009 at 08:11 am (UTC)
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