The Magor Pill Medieval Wreck

Description

With contributions by Kate Barrow, Richard Brunning, Nigel Cameron, Astrid Caseldine, Simon Dobinson, Diane Dollery, Rowena Gale, Edwin Gifford, Martin Locock, Mark Redknap, Michael Ryder, Gary Thomas, Ian Tyers, Peter Webster, Adam Yates, and Tim Young, and line drawings by Richard Brunning, Tony Daly, Paul Jones and Nigel Nayling. In 1994 the distorted timbers of a medieval boat came to light at Magor Pill, on the coast of the Gwent Levels, when storms washed away the sediments which had covered them since the boat ran aground about 700 years ago. This report charts the complex and difficult excavation and recovery of the boat and its cargo of iron ore. Back in the laboratory the boat was dismantled and the individual timbers studied in detail to provide an accurate picture of the methods, raw materials, and tools used in the boat's construction and subsequent repair. Models of the boat were made, and these, together with assessment of contemporary documents and iconography, point to the Magor Pill boat being a double-ended vessel built in the Northern European tradition and adapted to meet the demands of trading in the Bristol Channel. Analysis of the sedimentary, environmental and historical data suggests that the vessel foundered close to the mouth of a tidal tributary near an established landing place known as Abergwaitha. The boat's discovery emphasises the importance of creek ports both in the Severn estuary and beyond during the medieval period. List of illustrations vii List of tables x Acknowledgements xi List of contributors xii Summaries: English, French, German, Welsh xiii Introduction 1 The excavation evidence 6 The environmental evidence 28 The finds 41 The boat 45 The iron industry of south-east Wales in the 13th century 112 Oak dendrochronology 116 Beech dendrochronology 123 Reconstructing the Magor Pill boat 129 Building a full-size model 137 The historical and archaeological significance of the Magor Pill boat 143 Conservation strategy 155 Display 157 Conclusions 158 Glossary 160 Bibliography 163 Index 169