3,000-Year-Old Well-Preserved Handsewn Zambratija Boat Will Be Pulled Out of the Sea After Shipwreck

(Photo: Pexels/Marc Coenen)
3,000-Year-Old Well-Preserved Hand-Sewn Zambratija Boat Will Be Pulled Out of the Sea After Shipwreck

An old boat sinking into the sea's bottom would soon resurface. According to reports, there's a plan to pull out the handsewn shipwreck from the Mediterranean coast of Croatia in the Bay of Zambratija.

Zambratija Boat From a Shipwreck on Mediterranean Coast

Zambratija boat, dated between the 12th and 10th centuries B.C., is the oldest entirely handsewn boat in the Mediterranean. It will soon resurface after a shipwreck 3,000 years ago because scientists will be pulling it off the water to study it, CNRS reported.

The vessel was discovered in 2014 by a fisherman. Since then, researchers have assessed the possibility of its removal from the water.

A Franco-Croatian team from the Centre Camille Jullian (CNRS/AMU) and the Archaeological Museum of Istria (Pula, Croatia) will study the wreck in detail as a rare example of the historic shipbuilding history of Istria and Dalmatia. A group of divers will start taking apart the boat in the bay of Zambratija1 on July 2.

The scientists will recreate the boat in 3D, determine the materials used for sewing, and examine the methods used to shape the wood once the sections have been taken apart and placed in customer support. Every step of the process will call for the utmost care because handling artifacts of this caliber is sensitive.

After the analyses are finished, this remarkable vessel and its parts will be desalted in Croatia before being transported to Grenoble in 2024, where they will be restored by the workshop at Arc-Nucléart. The fully rebuilt vessel will be displayed in a new museum in Pula, Croatia, honoring the maritime heritage of Istria.

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What to Expect in Studying the Shipwreck?

Zambratija boat measures around 39 feet in length and about 23 feet wide. Despite being underwater for centuries, it is still in excellent preservation. The boast is made from wood that is intricately sewn using flexible fibers.

Before the invention of metal fasteners, many countries employed sewing-based boat construction techniques. And for some time, even after the invention of metal fasteners, small boats were still built using sewing techniques, according to Newsweek.

The Zambratija boat is a "rare" illustration of the long-standing shipbuilding history of Croatia's Dalmatia and Istria. According to a description of the wreck provided by the CNRS-affiliated Centre Camille Jullian (CCJ) in France, it is unique to the Mediterranean region in terms of architecture, structure, strake assembly technique, and hull waterproofing.

The Zambratija boat can be regarded as the archetype of one of the sewn boat-building traditions found in the Adriatic because of its architectural traits, the types of assemblage used, and the chronology.

Every step of the procedure will require the utmost care because handling artifacts of this caliber is a delicate matter, the CNRS stated in a press release.