Unearthed in 2015, during preventive excavations before the construction of a vast real estate project a few hundred meters from the Garonne, this ship is “the second or third” dating from the High Middle Ages discovered in France.
In Villenave-d’Ornon, a few kilometers south of Bordeaux, archaeologists from Inrap (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) are trying throughout the summer to unravel the mysteries of an “extremely rare” wreck, buried since 1300 years under an old arm of the Garonne. Unearthed in 2015, during preventive excavations before the construction of a vast real estate project a few hundred meters from the Garonne, this ship is “the second or the third” dating from the High Middle Ages discovered in France, according to Laurent Grimbert, archaeologist, responsible for the excavation presented to the press on Tuesday June 14.
According to the first datings of wood and ceramic pieces, the 12-meter long wreck would have transported goods, probably agricultural, on the river and as far as the Atlantic coast between 680 and 720. At the time, the city of Bordeaux, under the control of the Merovingians, was part of an independent Duchy of Aquitaine. It was plundered in 732 by the emir Abd al-Raman, then besieged a century later by the Vikings. But the origin of the ship, whose excavations started in 2019, remains a mystery. To avoid the drying out and degradation of these pieces of wood buried for 13 centuries, and watered every 30 minutes on site, the archaeologists will only have three months to carry out their complete study.
Complex excavations
“We are probably on a mix, the dismantling will tell us, on a crossbreeding of techniques” of the time going from the north of Europe to the Mediterranean, explains on the spot Marc Guyon, specialist in naval architecture. Until the beginning of September, a team of 10 archaeologists will try to dismantle the 200 to 300 ribs (transverse beams) which structure the hull, via hundreds of pegs, to determine the architectural tradition of the boat, its real height, its capacity to tonnage, or even the techniques used at the time to make it watertight.
To find its precise geographical origin, an archaeo-dendometer dispatched to the site analyzes the wood of the parts of the boat already dismantled – oak, Scots pine, chestnut – to draw up its growth curve, via its rings, before comparing it. reference chronologies on forests compiled at European level. Ceramic boxes, animal bones and a wooden spoon will also be analyzed.
The site will be open to the public on Saturday June 18 during the European Archeology Days.
