Dendrology and Dendrochronology of Ancient Shipwrecks from Caska (Pag Island, Croatia): New Data for the Definition of Adriatic Shipbuilding Traditions
Résumé
The dendrological and dendrochronological study of the wooden structures excavated in the Bay of Caska island of Pag (Croatia) started in 2009 after the unearthing of the remains of a first vessel assembled with the old Liburnian sewing technique (Caska 1). From this date, the discovery of the remains of three others shipwrecks, two sewn boats (Caska 3 and 4) and one vessel assembled by “mortise-and-tenon” joints (Caska 2), offered the unique circumstance to study a rich assemblage of contemporaneous wooden ship elements. Other important data obtained from the analysis of the wooden harbour structures of the Bay of Caska further enriched the assemblage.
The systematic identification of the wooden species utilised in all the preserved ship’s remains, the analysis of the morphological characteristics of a large number of ship’s components, and the dendrochnological analyses crossed with AMS radiocarbon dating calibrated by wiggle matching provide a unique perspective on the use of the wood as shipbuilding material in a specific geographical transport zone of the Eastern Adriatic. This research project is one of the results of the international interdisciplinary research project Cissa Antiqua, promoted since 2009 by the University of Zadar and Centre Camille Jullian (Aix-Marseille University – CNRS), in collaboration with the Municipality of Novalja.
The presentation provides an overview of the more significant results gathered from the dendrological and dendrochronological study. Some important questions such as the date, the local construction and the origin of the four vessels will be developed in relation to the architectural analysis and interpretation of the ship finds.
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