A Report on the late 1st–2nd-century-AD Venice Lido III Sewn Timber Assemblage

In 2012, fragments of hull planking bearing the signs of a Roman-era sewn vessel, with holes drilled along the plank edges, washed ashore on Venice Lido, the barrier island separating the Venice Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. This paper describes the construction features of this timber assemblage and places it within the context of other excavated sewn boats of the Upper Adriatic. The assemblage presented here best fits into the north-western Adriatic sewn tradition and likely represents either a fluvial-maritime or maritime watercraft.