Archaeology of a nautical battle: the investigation of the Italian-French brig Mercurio
Author(s): Carlo Beltrame
Year: 2013
Summary
The Mercurio was a brig of the Italian-French fleet that was sunk by an English brig in the north Adriatic Sea in 1812. Underwater investigation of the site has allowed the research team to document a part of the prow and the stern and to recover about 900 finds.
What are the goals of the investigation of a military ship from the beginning of the 19th century? Can it add new information to our knowledge of ship construction; of the equipment, crew, and everyday life aboard a military ship of this period? Can it provide information about the nautical battle that led to, and the dynamics of, its sinking? We will demonstrate that archaeological research can provide original insights on our knowledge of military ships in the Napoleonic era, and life aboard those ships, and that the quality of the data that the archaeologists can collect is indeed much higher than that provided by the historical data.
Cite this Record
Archaeology of a nautical battle: the investigation of the Italian-French brig Mercurio. Carlo Beltrame. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428479)
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Keywords
General
Adriatic
•
Brig
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nautical battle
Geographic Keywords
ITALY
•
Western Europe
Temporal Keywords
1812
Spatial Coverage
min long: 6.624; min lat: 36.649 ; max long: 18.513; max lat: 47.095 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 138