A Re-Assembly and Reconstruction of the 9th-Century A.D. Vessel Wrecked off the coast of Bozburun, Turkey
Matthew Benjamin Harpster
Dissertation: August 2005
Chair: Pulak
In 1973, researchers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) were led
to the site of a wrecked ship by sponge diver Mehmet Ask1n, near his hometown
of Bozburun, Turkey. During further monitoring over the following 21 years by
INA, the site was identified as a merchant vessel dating from the 9th century
AD. The excavation of the site by INA researchers and students from Texas
A&M University occurred over four summer seasons, from 1995 to 1998, and
yielded approximately 900 whole or nearly-whole amphorae, personal items,
palynological material, and approximately 35 percent of the vessel's wooden
hull. This dissertation is a record of the curation, cataloging, analysis and
re-assembly of the preserved elements of the Bozburun vessel's hull, as well as
a theoretical reconstruction of the entire vessel. The Bozburun vessel is unique
as it is the only fully-excavated shipwreck from the 9th century AD, and is,
indeed, a valuable source of examples of ship construction in the Mediterranean
between the 7th and the 11th centuries AD. This dissertation, after discussing
the methods of excavation and cataloging methods, posits the hypothesis that the
techniques used to build this vessel represent a transitional stage in
shipbuilding technology, combining distinctly old and new techniques. While the
builders used embedded edge joinery in the ship's planking, a very old method,
they also appear to have used a conceptual framework and standards to design the
vessel as well; methods evident in modified forms in Italian shipbuilding
treatises from the Renaissance.