Coal miners in Serbia have discovered the remains of a large wooden boat likely used by the Romans to supply a nearby city and military headquarters on the empire’s frontier.
The archaeologists, who are awaiting the results of radiocarbon dating of the wood, think the vessel may be from the 3rd or 4th century AD The team suggests the ancient vessel carried supplies along small rivers between the Danube and the Roman city of Viminacium founded in the early 1st century AD The ancient wreck was unearthed in the Drmno surface coal mine near Kostolac, about 50km east of Belgrade. The wooden remains were buried in a layer of silt about 8 meters below the surface. The miners who found it then contacted archaeologists at the nearby Viminacium Archaeological Park, run by the Belgrade Institute of Archaeology. Organic materials like wood usually rot when exposed to air, but the wooden planks and sand on top of them were damp, so it appeared the moisture had helped preserve the ancient ship, a spokesperson told the site. Serbian web Sve or arheologiji.
But after it was unearthed, “the great danger was the bright sun, which threatened to dry out the vessel too quickly,” so the archaeologist doused the remains with water as they excavated the wreck. The ship was originally about 20 m long and about 3.5 m wide. It was flat-bottomed, like a barge, and archaeologists think it was used to transport goods between the Danube and Viminacium. “It is probable that the barge was either pulled from the shore or pushed by the oars, and in suitable situations the vessel could also use the wind to move, using an auxiliary sail.”, the archaeologists said. The wreck isn’t the first ancient ship to be found in the vicinity: the remains of similar boats were found in the area in 2020, indicating that the region was once a navigable backwater of the nearby Danube.