3000-Year-Old Rare Hand-Sewn Shipwreck To Be Retrieved From The Sea

A hand-sewn shipwreck dating back to 3,000 years will soon be pulled out of the sea so that researchers can better study the exceptionally well-preserved boat. The wreck lies in the Bay of Zambratija, off the Mediterranean coast of Croatia.

Popular as the Zambratija boat, the vessel dates back to between the 12 and 10 centuries B.C., making it the oldest and completely hand-sewn boat in the Mediterranean, per the French National Center for Scientific Research (also known as the CNRS).

The vessel measures about 39 feet in length, about 23 feet of which are in a great state of preservation, irrespective of its age. The ship is built of uncountable pieces of wood that had been intricately sewn with strong and flexible fibres.

Boat construction strategies that involved sewing like this had been used in many parts of the world before the emergence of metal fasteners. And even after the arrival of metal fasteners, the sewing strategies continued to be deployed in building small boats for quite some time.

The Zambratija boat is one of those “rare” examples of the ancient shipbuilding tradition of Dalmatia and Istria, two regions that lie on the coast of Croatia, per the CNRS.

Its architecture, construction, the assembly strategy of strakes, and the hull’s unique waterproofing system have no equivalent in the Mediterranean area, the Centre Camille Jullian (also known as the CCJ) in France mentioned while describing the wreck.

It added that owing to the architectural highlights, the types of assemblage, and the dating, the Zambratija boat could be considered the archetype of a sewn boat-building tradition recognized in the Adriatic.

References: Newsweek, PressBee, SyFeed

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