Here's the latest on that Roman barge found near Utrecht. What follows is a transcript of an Australian radio show:
Posted on June 21, 2003 12:26 AM. Filed under: history & archaeology.EDMOND ROY: Just outside the Dutch city of Utrecht lies one of the country's oldest shipwrecks every discovered in the Netherlands.
It's a Roman Barge, it's 1800 years old and now Dutch archaeologists have managed to raise it.
Europe Correspondent, Geoff Hutchison, went along for Saturday AM.
GEOFF HUTCHISON: Row upon row of bland brick apartments overlooking muddy fields. This is a new housing estate in an old land.
And at the bottom of everyone's garden is an extraordinary sight: a huge crane is swaying over the heads of dozens of people wearing hard hats, and all of them are looking into a hole about 30 metres long and 10 metres deep.
And in that hole are the superbly preserved oak timbers of a Roman Barge.
JOS BAZELMANS: It has been here for 1800 years. It's a barge from the late second century AD. It's conserved 'cause it's in water-logged conditions, without having oxygen in it, because oxygen causes rotting of the root. It's in perfect conditions, it's even including the little cabins, which were at the backside of the ship, and within these cabins we found the complete sets of utensils and instruments the crew used.
GEOFF HUTCHISON: The barge is 25 metres long, and made of German oak. It probably carried soldiers, their cattle and supplies up the Rhine River to help extend both the Roman Road and with that the Roman Empire. [continue]