A leading analysis: Lead objects on French Frigates of the Early 18th century, according to La Natière Shipwrecks

Summary

From 1999 to 2008, an underwater archaeological excavation has been carried away, by French Ministry of Culture DRASSM and the ADRAMAR association, on two French Frigates sunk off St. Malo (France). One has been identified as the Dauphine, a light frigate built for privateering in the royal dockyard of Le Havre (1703) and sunk on December 1704. The other is known as the Aimable Grenot, a large frigate built in Granville for a private ship-owner (1747), armed for privateering then for trade before her wreckage on May 1749. The archaeological project has been carried out into a comparative and global study of La Natière site, in order to compare material culture, hull structures, supplies and outfitting of the two ships. Because lead is easily shapable and reusable endlessly, it had fulfilled plenty of tasks on board. Whereas, its archaeological significance seems to be still misunderstood and neglected. According to the numerous finds of La Natière shipwrecks, a corpus has been defined and compared to French archives, in order to point out the historical place of lead and to build the first typology of leaden items embarked on board.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bringing French Shipwreck Historical Archaeology to the Next Level   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-45,12