Aquila:Five Roman Boats (Nova Roma)

A discovery of some interest was revealed in July of 1975 during the excavation of a canal structure near the small village of Pommeroeul, Belgium. The discovery was a small riverport and in this area was a find of five dugout type boats probably in use during the Roman era. Also within this area was evidence of revetments which had been renewed on several ocasions, apparently as the waterway shifted it's bed during the wet seasons.

The site is fairly close to an ancient Roman Road which went from Baval and headed North. The place of the archaelogical find was at the point where the road crossedan area where the Haine River and a small stream came together. Both of these waterways had been covered with river silt since the 1800's. In the vicinity of the find and on both sides of the Roman Road were found masonry and wooden structures, which were believed to be inhabited somewhere between the 1st and 3rd century AD.

Quay wals and wooden plank revetments were apparently under constant renewal, and there was also a large platform of heavy oak planks had been fastened to pilings driven in to the bottom of the river. The platform measured about 15 meters in length and approx. 7 meters wide This structure lay in the middle of the dverted and revetted river channel and probably served as a landing site for boats using the channel and small harbor.

(To be continued)

Reference:

Joan du Plat Taylor and Henry Cleere,""Roman Shipping and Trade - Britain and the Rhine Provinces," The Council for British Archaeology, Research Report #24, 1978, (ISBN 0-900312-62- 9)

Marcus Minucius-Tiberius Audens

Editor, "Aquila"