BARCELONA, SPAIN—According to a report in The Guardian, archaeologists working at the site of a former fish market along the Barcelona waterfront unearthed the remnants of a medieval ship, which they have named Ciutadella I after a nearby park. The remains of the vessel, which are 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, consist of at least 30 curved wooden ribs that were held together by wooden and iron nails. The boat’s construction style is typical of designs known throughout medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. It was found in an area close to the former port, where an artificial stone quay once protected moored vessels. Researchers believe that the ship likely dates to the fifteenth or sixteenth century and sank in a storm. The discovery comes 17 years after another fifteenth-century boat, known as Barceloneta I, was found near the Barcelona França railway station. “This is a very important discovery,” said lead archaeologist Santi Palacios. “It’s not just about finding one boat because we now have two examples of perfectly documented naval construction in the city of Barcelona.” The ruins are too fragile to be removed en masse, so the team is dismantling the vessel piece by piece and taking its fragments to a special facility where it will be treated with water-soluble wax to reinforce and preserve the structure. To read more about medieval Spanish archaeology, go to "Spain's Lost Jewish History."
