What they found

On the outskirts of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, a huge building development – one of the biggest in Europe – has kept archaeologists busy investigating what lies under the ground ahead of it being buried beneath 30,000 new homes. A major archaeological project has involved excavating a series of Roman remains connected with the river Rhine, which runs past Utrecht. The Rhine was both the frontier of the northeast Roman empire and the 'motorway of Roman Europe', as one of the Dutch archaeologists described it. The discoveries made alongside the river include the frontier road, watchtowers, forts – and boats.

Time Team was invited to Utrecht by the Dutch archaeologists to excavate one of these boats, which had been discovered almost perfectly preserved in the waterlogged ground. The Team also investigated a nearby site, which it was thought might have been the location of a Roman fort. In fact, although various Roman debris was found on the site, there was no sign of a fort, so most of the Team's attention was directed towards the boat. It did not disappoint.

This was not the first Roman vessel to be uncovered in this area. Another found nearby had already been excavated and was now being preserved at the Netherlands Institute for Ships and Underwater Archaeology. Shaped something like a large punt with a mast, this river barge was 2.5 metres wide by 25 metres long. To give an idea of its size, some 40,000 nails were used in its construction. Archaeologists worked out from its dimensions and structure that it would have sunk under the weight of a full load of grain, so it was probably used for relatively light, loose goods of various kinds.

The boat excavated by Time Team was also a river barge of similar shape, but it turned out to be much bigger. In fact, it was too big – and buried at too steep an angle, six metres below the surface at its bottom end – for it to be excavated completely. Instead, a five-metre section was uncovered – more than enough for the archaeologists to realise that this was a very important discovery.

The excavation revealed that the boat was 4.8 metres wide and up to 35 metres long. The fact that there was no mast socket in the excavated section meant that it was buried stern up; and the position of the boat led the archaeologists to conclude that it had been deliberately abandoned on a curve in the river in an attempt to stop further erosion of the river bank close to the frontier road. The Romans had also shipped in basalt blocks (the Netherlands has no stone) to build a revetment along this stretch of river bank. This was dated to around 100 AD by dendrochronology (tree ring dating) of poles used in its construction.

Timber samples from the boat were also taken for dendro dating. These came back with a date of around 77 AD (plus or minus about six years). This would make the boat the oldest of its kind (15 others have been excavated in the Netherlands, all later) – the earliest known example of a Roman Rhine river barge.

As well as its early date, the archaeologists were also excited by the techniques used in the boat's construction. These included the use of mortise and tenon joints to secure the planking along the bottom of the boat. None of the other similar boats excavated in the Netherlands were built in the same way, which is more associated with Mediterranean vessels. This made the discovery all the more exciting, according to Time Team's ancient woodworking specialist, Damien Goodburn, because it was 'throwing existing ideas up in the air'.

Text only