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2,000-Year-Old Roman Shipwreck Reveals How Ancient Engineers Waterproofed Their Vessels
A Roman-era shipwreck off the coast of Ilovik Island is offering a rare, close-up look at how ancient shipbuilders protected their vessels against the constant stress of the sea. By combining chemical analysis with pollen research, scientists have reconstructed not only the materials used on the ship, but also the environments it moved through and…
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A 2,300-Year-Old Fingerprint Found on Scandinavia’s Oldest Wooden Boat
For a brief moment more than 2,300 years ago, a sailor pressed his hand into warm pine pitch while repairing a wooden boat. The gesture was ordinary, almost invisible — yet it endured. Today, that faint fingerprint has been identified in the remains of the Hjortspring boat, the oldest known wooden plank-built vessel in Scandinavia,…