Upgrading trading?

Work on the new riverside arts centre in NewportA city in Wales in the United Kingdom. looked straightforward enough. All the builders had to do was dig a big enough hole for the auditorium and orchestra pit. But then they made a puzzling discovery: a series of old timbers along one of the walls. And when the mud was cleared away, archaeologistsSomeone whose job it is to understand what people of the past were like and how they lived. They dig up old buildings and objects to find out more about ancient peoples. realised that they were looking at something extraordinary: the remains of a large ship.

That was in July 2002. As soon as the find became public, local people began to campaign for the ship to be restored and displayed in the city. Now, after two decades of conservation work, experts are ready to start putting it back together.

Once finished, it is expected to become one of Wales's biggest tourist attractions.

The ship, almost 100 feet long, was a merchant vessel whose cargoes included wine. It could carry the equivalent of 200,000 bottles. ArtefactsItems made by humans, especially ones of historical interest. found on board, including part of an iron helmet, suggest that it carried armed men to fight off pirates.

It is believed to have sailed up the River UskA river in Wales. for repairs in 1468 or 1469, after a voyage from Portugal. The theory is that it then broke its moorings and it became so badly damaged that nothing could be done with it.

Many of the timbers and much of the ironwork were stripped from it for re-use. But a third of it sank in the mud, where it lay undisturbed for over 500 years.

If the remaining 2,000 timbers had simply been dug out and left to dry, they would have disintegrated. Instead they were painstakingly cleaned, coated with wax and then freeze-dried at the Mary RoseAn English warship from King Henry VIII's fleet which sank in 1545. It was later raised and now is housed in a museum in Portsmouth, UK. Museum in Portsmouth. Last week work on them was finally completed.

The ship's reconstruction can now begin as soon as a permanent home for it has been found. It has been called the world's biggest 3D puzzle, and is expected to take five years to complete.

"We have a massive, flat-pack ship that we need to reassemble - and there are no instructions," says Toby Jones, the marine archaeologist in charge of the project.¹ "There is going to be a lot of fitting, checking and disassembling and fitting again and again.

"There are archaeological ships on display around the world, but nothing from the period of the 15th Century, so this is what makes this so significant and special. We have an actual medievalRelating to the Middle Ages. ship that's totally unique."

For the historian Dan Snow it represents a revolution in European shipbuilding and exploration:

"It was at a time when those living along the Atlantic seaboardThe coastline of a particular region. - the Welsh, people from BrittanyA region of northwest France. It historically has had a distinct identity from the rest of France., northern Spain, Portugal, Devon and Cornwall - were starting to go to sea in bigger and stronger ships that would allow them to eventually cross the Atlantic and into the Indian Ocean.

"It's the birth of an era that changed the world in every way imaginable. People talk about globalisation and international trade as if it's something recent. This ship shows that way back in our medieval past we had strong links with Europe and we were trading and drinking French wine."

Yes: It demonstrates that shipbuilding in the 15th Century was more sophisticated than we realised, and people were able to travel considerable distances by sea with very large cargoes.

No: Trading has gone on across the world since ancient times, with enterprising merchants undertaking astonishing journeys. The discovery of the Newport Ship simply confirms that pattern.  

Or... The real significance of the project is that it shows how ingenious humans have become in exploring the past. Thanks to new technology we are making new discoveries faster than ever before.