Roman warship found near Pisa's tower is 'best-preserved ship of ancient times'

A long-vanished harbour 500 metres from the leaning Tower of Pisa has yielded its most precious treasure to date: an intact ancient Roman warship, 12 metres (40ft) long, "the best-preserved ship of antiquity ever found" according to the project director at the site, Andrea Camilli.

The sleek, oar-driven vessel with a reinforced prow designed for ramming was hauled from the mud in which it had been entombed for 2,000 years, and which has preserved it as good as new. It was immediately sealed in fibreglass and transferred to a nearby restoration laboratory.

The painstaking work of uncovering the ship's secrets and preparing it for exhibition is expected to take four years, whereupon it will become a star attraction of Pisa's new Museum of Ancient Ships. The warship is the latest, biggest and most spectacular discovery at a site that has been described as "the Pompeii of maritime archaeology".

Present-day Pisa shares a river, the Arno, with Florence upstream, and is several miles from the Mediterranean coast. But the same site was on the sea 2,000 years ago, and with its network of rivers and canals was more like present-day Venice than the city as it exists today.

Pisa was an important Roman naval asset. Ancient sources mention fleets setting out from it for Gaul and Spain during the Second Punic War (218-201 BC)

At the heart of the ancient city, formed by a secondary branch of the long-vanished river Auser, was the Porto delle Conche (Port of the Basins), one of the most important harbours of the ancient Mediterranean. Its name survived the millenniums but until four years ago its whereabouts remained a mystery.

In 1998, Italy's state railway began building a control centre in the centre of Pisa at the San Rossore station. Workers sinking foundations sliced in two the hull of an ancient ship. Work on the new building came to an abrupt halt. When archaeologists took over the site, they discovered a muddy layer cake, richly embedded with ship after ship: at least 16 have been identified, including three cargo ships, three river boats and the warship extracted last Tuesday, only the second to have been removed from the site.

Thanks to the silt that eventually buried the harbour altogether, the ships are in miraculously good condition. Some planks are still fastened by bronze nails.

The cargo ships contain hundreds of amphora, clay vessels, which were used for transporting fruit, olives, wine and oil, as well as vases, glass beakers, ropes, mats and leather products. Animal bones found on the wrecks include those of boar, goats and a lion, possibly bound for the gladiatorial ring.