[Archport] Barcaça romana encontrada em Colónia

["Alexandre Monteiro" <alexandre.monteiro@gmail.com>]

Roman barge under Cologne to reveal shipping history

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/155522.html

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:08:05 GMT

Cologne, Germany - Excited archaeologists are raising part of a Roman
barge that sank near the wharf nearly 2,000 years ago in the German
riverside city of Cologne. Cologne, which derives its modern name from
the town's Latin name, Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, is full of
Roman remains including a largely intact aqueduct.

But the oaken boat, found 12 metres below the surface during
excavations a few days ago for an underground mass-transit line, is
something special, offering scientists a new window into life in this
cold northern Roman province.
A piece of the vessel's flat bottom, about 8 square metres in size,
with huge iron nails poking out of it, is still in the mud between
modern building machinery and materials.

"We archaeologists are sparing with the word 'sensational'," said the
city's top official for subsurface history, Gerd Hellenkemper, as he
showed it to the media. "Let's just say everyone wants to know more
about this. "There's a genuine possibility this could turn out to be
the oldest Roman transport vessel left in central Europe.It's an
exciting find that will tell us a lot about the history of
boatbuilding and transport."

The Rhine river was the main highway of the Roman province and the
boat's site was a river port. University of Cologne have already been
counting tree rings and have dated samples from the oak, establishing
that the tree began its growth in 142 BC. "That does not tell us when
the barge was built though," said Hellenkemper.

"The evidence so far is that the tree grew in the highlands east of
Cologne, so it seems plausible the barge was built here."

The entire flat-bottomed vessel, a standard Roman type, would have
been 22 to 23 metres long and would have had a beam of 3.5 metres and
a capacity of 20 to 30 tons, suitable for cattle, stone and bricks,
firewood or construction timber.

"Whether it had a mast and was wind-powered, we just don't know," the
archaeologist said. The piece of ship is to be raised in four sections
and stored in fluid, with restoration scheduled by 2011.Unfortunately
a foundation trench for the rail line has already been cut through
part of the ship and filled with concrete.

"We are absolutely sure the rest of the barge is in the ground on the
other side of the concrete," said another archaeologist, Rudolf
Nehren, wistfully. "But it could be many long years before we figure
out how to get the rest of it out."