Posted on 12/26/2019 11:00:59 AM PST by SunkenCiv
An important question for our understanding of Roman history is how the Empire's economy was structured, and how long-distance trading within and between its provinces was organised and achieved. Moreover, it is still unclear whether large construction timbers, for use in Italy, came from the widespread temperate forests north of the Alps and were then transported to the sparsely-wooded Mediterranean region in the south. Here, we present dendrochronological results from the archaeological excavation of an expensively decorated portico in the centre of Rome. The oak trees (Quercus sp.), providing twenty-four well-preserved planks in waterlogged ground, had been felled between 40 and 60 CE in the Jura Mountains of north-eastern France. It is most likely that the wood was transported to the Eternal City on the Saône and Rhône rivers and then across the Mediterranean Sea. This rare dendrochronological evidence from the capital of the Roman Empire gives fresh impetus to the ongoing debate on the likelihood of transporting timber over long distances within and between Roman provinces. This study reconstructs the administrative and logistic efforts required to transport high-quality construction timber from central Europe to Rome. It also highlights an advanced network of trade, and emphasises the enormous value of oak wood in Roman times.
(Excerpt) Read more at journals.plos.org ...
His work is featured on DIY channels.
Oh okay. Now it makes sense. 8>)
Homemade biscuits. “)
“Ive wondered what Roman grain ships looked like and if any sunken ones have been found.”
—
I don’t know how much of wood structures of anything would still be left to find at the bottom of the sea after two millennium.
Because of the standardized technique used some believe that the Nemi ships were actually standard grain ships minus their anti-ship worm lead armor with purpose built superstructures plopped on the deck.
They were large. There were only a few ports in the Med capable of handling them -- Egypt's, Rhodes, the Piraeus, and Portus. Lionel Casson quotes a surviving Roman-era account of the arrival of one of those huge grain boats at the Piraeus (some sort of problem, either with the ship, or a storm) and how the who city came down to rubberneck. It was a kind of turning of the tables, since a century or three earlier, after the conquest of Greece, the Romans had been so impressed by the never-used huge warship of one of the Greek/Macedonian kings of the Alexandrian successor state that they towed it to Rome as a trophy and a tourist attraction.
I wholeheartedly agree. It is evident that there was long-distance trade in the Americas. The apparent quantity of copper mined in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in precolumbian times was mystifying for a long time -- Menzies posits Isle Royale and the UP as the source for the copper used in the European bronze age -- but it turns out that the copper moved out and south into Central America. This doesn't mean there wasn't precolumbian contact, of course.
Gotta find a new image free host that will recognize this poor old CPU.
Or maybe just move a bunch of graphics via sneakernet to the newer hardware.
https://www.techpowerup.org/upload
That makes me think of the Vasa and the Mary Rose.
That guy holding the axe, second from left, haz teh crazy eyes.
Oh gracious no! They are a bunch of good ole boys from West Virginia; hard-working-Christian sort. I love them all. They have a very specialized talent for what they do.
Giving new life to century old timbers. :)
Must just be bad lighting ;-).
http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Technology/en/GiantShips.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=Tessarakonteres
http://www.google.com/search?q=Syracusia
That possible. Also from Caligula/Gaius' reign, the great ship built to transport an obelisk was a spectacle in its own right, remaining a tourist attraction at dock until it was reused by Claudius as the form for the pouring ot the concrete when C built the Portus all-season port for Rome. It's not out of the question that at least parts of that great ship have survived, buried end down, in the now-landlocked port. The internal structure, which would be interesting to examine, may very well still exist as a negative impression in the concrete.
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