Carlo Beltrame

Sauro Gelichi

Igor Miholjek

A 16th Century Venetian Merchantman from Mljet, Croatia (with Italian and Croatian Abstracts)

Sveti Pavao Shipwreck

Between 2007 and 2012 the Department for Underwater Archaeology of the Croatian Conservation Institute from Zagreb and the Department of Humanistic Studies of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice collaborated in the recording, underwater excavation and analysis of the unusually well-preserved wreck of a 16th century Venetian merchantman in the Svetti Pavao shallow off the southern shore of the island of Mljet, Croatia. The shipwreck preserved many personal possessions of the crew as well as a number of bronze artillery pieces and the remains of a cargo of luxury and richly decorated ceramic material from Iznik and other oriental workshops. Although the excavation is not complete, this volume presents the results of the project so far. The methodological and technical aspects of the underwater investigation of the site, mainly by photogrammetry, are described; the historical and archaeological context of navigation in the late Medieval period in the eastern Mediterranean discussed; and the recovered artefacts described and catalogued in detail, together with the remains of the ship and its equipment that, because of depth and of problems of conservation, have been left in situ. The conservation and restoration of the finds are described in an appendix.

A 16th century Venetian merchantman from Mljet, Croatia

The Italian brig Mercurio was escorting the French 80-gun vessel Rivoli from Venice on its very first expedition, in 1812, when it was sunk by an English ship during the Battle of Grado. Since the wreck was identified, the Mercurio has been the site of several underwater excavations, beginning in 2001 and continuing from 2004 to 2011 by a team from the Università Ca? Foscari of Venice, together with the local Soprintendenza. Their work revealed a number of extraordinary finds and provided a unique insight into life - and death - on a brig during the period of the Napoleonic wars.00This volume offers a discussion and catalogue of the finds yielded by the Mercurio, including photogrammetry-plans of the bow and stern, together with an analysis of ship-building technique, detail of the equipment and arms used, and, uniquely, close detail of finds connected to the crew themselves. This is one of the few sites from the Mediterranean where human remains have been preserved, and through the work of anthropologists, it has even been possible to try and identify one of the men named on the crew list. Discovery of buttons, footwear, precious items, and even foodstuffs also serve to shed light on the daily life of the crew. This volume thus draws together a wealth of archaeological and historical information to tell the hitherto untold story of the Mercurio.

Archaeology of a Brig of the Regno Italico Sunk During the Battle of Grado, 1812

The Mercurio

Archeologia dei relitti postmedievali / Archaeology of Post-Medieval Shipwrecks, a cura di Carlo Beltrame Il volume, che raccoglie undici contributi di archeologi marittimi di molti paesi, ha l’obiettivo di accendere i riflettori sulle enormi potenzialità dei relitti di età storica, mettendo a confronto, da un lato, approcci diversi (di ambito mediterraneo ma anche statunitense, australiano e nord europeo), dall’altro, contesti archeologici con caratteristiche altrettanto diverse per l’ambiente di giacitura e per l’impiego civile o militare dell’imbarcazione. Gli studi, diacronici ma incentrati sul Cinquecento e sull’Ottocento, coprono le varie sfaccettature dell’indagine storica dei relitti di età postmedievale quali la costruzione navale, il commercio e la vita di bordo, ma anche aspetti di tipo squisitamente metodologico quali l’archeologia sperimentale navale. Si tratta di una novità assoluta per l’editoria scientifica italiana in cui questo particolare, ma molto promettente, ambito della ricerca archeologica non aveva ancora trovato adeguato spazio.

APM - Archeologia Postmedievale, 18, 2014 - Archeologia dei relitti postmedievali / Archaeology of Post-Medieval Shipwrecks

From sewn planked boats in Early Dynastic Egypt to Late Roman wrecks in Italy, and the design of Venetian Merchant Galleys, this huge volume gathers together fifty-three papers presenting new research on the archaeology and history of ancient ships and shipbuilding traditions. The papers have been grouped into several thematic sections, including: ships of the Mediterranean; the reconstruction of ancient ships, from life-size reconstructions to computer models; the study of shipyards, shipsheds and slipways of the Mediterranean and Europe; Venetian Galleys of the 15th and 16th centuries; and North European medieval and post -medieval ships. These papers which were presented at the Ninth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology (ISBSA), held in Venice 2000. Carlo Beltrame is a free-lance archaeologist and contract professor of Maritime archaeology at Università Ca' Foscari of Venice and of Naval archaeology at Universita della Tuscia of Viterbo. He specialises in the archaeology of ship-construction from antiquity until the Renaissance period and methodology in maritime archaeology.

Carlo Beltrame

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