Posted on 06/02/2011 5:41:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A Roman ship found with a lead pipe piercing its hull has mystified archaeologists. Italian researchers now suggest that the pipe was part of an ingenious pumping system, designed to feed on-board fish tanks with a continuous supply of oxygenated water. Their analysis has been published online in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
Historians have assumed that in ancient times fresh fish were eaten close to where they were caught, because without refrigeration they would have rotted during transportation. But if the latest theory is correct, Roman ships could have carried live fish to buyers across the Mediterranean Sea.
The wrecked ship, which dates from the second century AD, was discovered six miles off the coast of Grado in northeastern Italy, in 1986. It was recovered in pieces in 1999 and is now held in the Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Grado. A small trade ship around 16.5 metres long, the vessel was carrying hundreds of vase-like containers that held processed fish, including sardines and salted mackerel.
Carlo Beltrame, a marine archaeologist at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italy, and his colleagues have been trying to make sense of one bizarre feature of the wreck: a lead pipe near the stern that ends in a hole through the hull. The surviving pipe is 1.3 metres long, and 7-10 centimetres in diameter.
The team concludes that the pipe must have been connected to a piston pump, in which a hand-operated lever moves pistons up and down inside a pair of pipes. One-way valves ensure that water is pushed from one reservoir into another. The Romans had access to such technology, although it hasn't been seen before on their ships, and the pump itself hasn't been recovered from the Grado wreck.
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
This lead tube is all that remains of what could have been a tank for transporting live fish.D. Gaddi / The Nautical Archaeology Society
Section of the ship with the hypothetical hydraulic system to fill the vivarium.S. Parizzi / The Nautical Archaeology Society
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Hey, it is how we do crab fishing.
Sewer pipe.
Exactly.
After passengers used the toilet, this pipe was used to pump the 0bama overboard.
The hull of the Grado Roman shipwreck in situ. The second-century ship spanned some 55 feet and held hundreds of amphoras containing fish products.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/229456-Is-this-the-world-s-oldest-fish-tank-
The Greeks and Romans we are finding out were much more advanced than thought, even for those societies. A couple of small twists in history and we would have had the industrial revolution about 1500 years earlier.
It was probably one of my ancestors running the pump - Uncle Flushie.
All the Roman Empire needed was a banking system, a postal system, and universal compulsory education, and they’d be running Europe and the Mediterranean basin to this day. :’)
Those interested can find more on FR, look for the Nemi Ship of Caligula, or Tamil Trade — either topic has more links.
Looks like a ballast pump to me.
It was near the spine because the ballast tank was near the spine for balance.
Lowers the draft when the ship is empty.
When the ship is laden with cargo, they pump out the water.
That would be more revolutionary of a discovery, imho.
I’m left asking why wouldn’t something like this have been done and much earlier than AD? I’d think that people would have been trying to keep the fish fresh and in seawater would have been the way.
“All the Roman Empire needed was a banking system, a postal system, and universal compulsory education, . . . “
A property recordation system and a court system that impartially enforced contracts would be a must also. Universal education, probably not so much. The US was the already the most powerful country in the world by the beginning of the 20th century—before universal compulsory education in the US.
Between the Western, Eastern, and Holy Roman empires, Roman culture and it’s offspring have succeeded in dominating most of the last 2000 years of European history.
What’s there today is basically the embers of Rome. The only reason they are starting to move beyond that is because the third wave of the Caliphate is upon them, and by their own hand to boot.
Wouldn’t the lead pipe leach lead poison and contaminate the fish?
Wouldn’t the lead pipe leach lead poison and contaminate the fish?
Yes.
And the Mad Romans also used it for drinking water pipe.
How about that?
The Romans used lead pipe for hundreds of years and it's thought that rapid calcium carbonate build-up inside the pipes protected them from too much exposure.
They were apparently aware that there was some danger in lead by the time of the 1st emperor Augustus when Vitruvius wrote:
"Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than that through lead; indeed that conveyed in lead must be injurious, because from it white lead is obtained, and this is said to be injurious to the human system. Hence, if what is generated from it is pernicious, there can be no doubt that itself cannot be a wholesome body. This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are of a pallid colour; for in casting lead, the fumes from it fixing on the different members, and daily burning them, destroy the vigour of the blood; water should therefore on no account be conducted in leaden pipes if we are desirous that it should be wholesome."
"Interesting article about possible lead poisoning of Romans"
I guess they got a special dispensation to use a salt water flush...
like depositing water contaminated salt into the ocean.
Okay.
I wouldn't do it on any boat.
Okay, ship's carpenters out there: would you consider putting hole through the keel?
:’) There was a claim in the 1970s (maybe earlier, I don’t think I’ve ever looked into it) that the Roman Empire fell because they used lead pipes and all got lead poisoning, lost fertility, and went extinct basically. There’s hardly ever been a more clear-cut case of the political seduction of the sciences.
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