Barland's Farm, Magor, Gwent: a Romano-Celtic boat

Abstract

Recent excavations on the Gwent Levels, in the wetlands of the Severn Estuary, south Wales, have recovered substantial remains of a waterlogged boat, of probable late 3rd- to early 4th-century AD date.

One of His Majesty's ‘Beste Kraffwells’: the wreck of an early carvel-built ship at Franska Sternarna, Sweden

“…Of course the notion of flush‐laid, non edge‐joined planks was not new in northern Europe, though the sequence of construction which produced them was rather different. What has been defined as the ‘bottom‐based’ construction of cogs (Hocker and Vlierman, 1996) is one example, and recent research by McGrail into the Romano‐Celtic boat found at Barland's Farm suggests a very early form of frame‐regulated construction (Nayling and McGrail, 2004).…”

Some Principles for the Reconstruction of Ancient Boat Structures

“…A second feature, often disregarded, is the fact that the introduction of the saw for the production of planks for boat‐ and shipbuilding was late in the northern and north‐western parts of Europe. During the Roman period, saws were used in boatbuilding in Britain and the Rhineland (Nayling and McGrail, 2004: 163), but in Scandinavia sawing was not practised in shipbuilding until the high or late Middle Ages (Christensen, 1985: 213–14; Crumlin‐Pedersen, 1989: 31). Before that time, the starting point for craftsmen fashioning a plank was not parallel‐sided boards but half‐logs or long, radially‐split elements of a wedge‐shaped cross‐section which had to be reduced by axe to the specific cross‐section needed in each case.…”

Some remarks on Romano-Celtic boat construction and MR Bronze Age wood technology

“…The second group is made up of four vessels from Blackfriars 1962/GB, St Peter Port 1982/Guernesey, Bruges 1899/B and Barland's Farm 1993/GB (Marsden, 1967(Marsden, , 1976(Marsden, , 1994Rule & Monaghan, 1993;Nayling et al, 1994). The first two only will be examined here as their hulls have been thoroughly studied.…”