In 1998, the first of many Roman-era ships was unearthed in the ‘Pompeii of the sea.’ Archaeologists wanted to know how they got there
Work was underway near the San Rossore railway station on the outskirts of Pisa in 1998, when bulldozers sliced into something wooden. Arriving on the scene, archaeologist Stefano Bruni saw that the builders had struck the hull of an ancient ship. During the next year, eight more vessels were uncovered at the site, turning it into an archaeological gold mine.
The leaning tower and the mystery of the buried ships are linked by the region’s geology. Ancient Pisa was founded on an alluvial plain: As the city evolved, sand and soil washed downstream by the local rivers was deposited at their mouths as layers of silt. As they built up overtime, these layers upon layers led to a centuries-long recession of the coastline, leaving Pisa farther from the sea. This soft, sandy ground is the principal cause of the tilt of Pisa’s famous tower.
As Bruni’s team continued to investigate the ancient wrecks, it gradually began to piece together how so many came to be clustered in one place. Analysis of the sediments suggested that the San Rossore site once lay along an ancient canal connected to a branch of the Serchio River in the north. Ships could travel from the river and down the canal to where they could unload their cargo in relatively calm waters.
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