Unearthed in 2015 during preventive excavations before the construction of a vast real estate project a few hundred meters from the Garonne, this ship is "the second or third" dating from the High Middle Ages discovered in France, according to Laurent Grimbert, archaeologist, responsible for the excavation presented to the press on Tuesday.
According to the first dating of wood and ceramic pieces, this "rare" wooden wreck, 12 meters long, would have transported goods, probably agricultural, on the river and as far as the Atlantic coast between 680 and 720.
At the time, the city of Bordeaux, under the control of the Merovingians, was part of an independent Duchy of Aquitaine.
It was plundered in 732 by the emir Abd al-Raman, then besieged a century later by the Vikings.
But the origin of the ship, whose excavations started in 2019, remains a mystery.
"We are probably on a mix, the dismantling will tell us, on a crossbreeding of techniques" of the time going from northern Europe to the Mediterranean, explains on the spot Marc Guyon, specialist in naval architecture.
To find its precise geographical origin, an archaeo-dendometer dispatched to the site analyzes the wood of the parts of the boat already dismantled - oak, Scots pine, chestnut - to draw up its growth curve, via its rings, before comparing it. reference chronologies on forests compiled at European level.
Ceramic boxes, animal bones and a wooden spoon will also be analyzed.
Inrap archaeologists observe a 1,300-year-old wreck on June 14, 2022 in Villenave-d'Ornon, near Bordeaux Philippe LOPEZ AFP
To avoid the drying out and degradation of these pieces of wood buried for 13 centuries, and watered every 30 minutes on site, the archaeologists will only have three months to carry out their complete study.
The site will be open to the public on Saturday June 18 during the European Archeology Days.
© 2022 AFP