Ships and boats of late Prehistoric and Roman Nauportus. New evidence and some remarks on the transfer and innovation in the shipbuilding technologies on the northern fringes of the Mediterranean 2nd century BC – 1st century AD

Abstract

Abstract: This paper discusses the archaeological evidence regarding the unique navigational environment of the Ljubljansko barje (Ljubljana Marshes) in the 2nd – 1st centuries BC. The evidence consists of the renowned and almost completely preserved flat- bottomed boat of sewn construction from Lipe (1890), the newly discovered sewn boat of a presumably similar size and technology from the Ljubljanica River at Vrhnika (2015), and the very large oak logboat also from Vrhnika featuring complex repairs and other unusual technical solutions. The construction details of all three watercraft originate in Mediterranean shipbuilding practices, but arguably lean on local tradition embedded in the broader socio-cultural environment of the pre-Roman populations of the northern Adriatic and its immediate hinterland.