Workers in April found an 18th-century sunken boat near the medieval stone walls of Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Ivan Bukelic found a wooden structure buried in the seabed while working on a water pipeline in Dubrovnik’s port in April.
“I can now say I discovered a boat at the Old Town Dubrovnik,” Bukelic, a diver and undersea builder, said.
He noted that the sunken vessel was buried less than three feet beneath the sea bottom.
CBS News wrote:
A key trade port in the Adriatic Sea in medieval times, Dubrovnik has been declared a UNESCO protected heritage site. It attracts huge crowds of tourists, especially during the summer, and is also known as a filming site for HBO’s “Game of Thrones” series.
The remains of the boat in Dubrovnik’s old port have been protected for further examination.
“We still cannot speak of the type of vessel or its dimensions but we can say for certain based on the results of radiocarbon analysis that it was from late 18th century,” Irena Radic Rossi, a marine archeologist, said.
Dubrovnik became an important setting for many scenes in HBO’s hit fantasy show, Game of Thrones.
Exterior shots were used to film the King’s Landing in the show.
Travel and Leisure wrote:
Though most of King’s Landing was shot in a studio, some exterior shots were taken in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Trsteno Arboretum, for example, was used for the palace gardens. The Jesuit Staircase became the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, and St. Dominic Street is where most market scenes were filmed.
Minčeta Tower, a 14th-century fortress where Dubrovnik visitors go for views of the city and sea, served as the House of the Undying, where Daenerys is led after her dragons are stolen during her stay in Qarth.
Rossi added that the research and recovery project will continue with the Croatian Ministry of Culture.
Dubrovnik over the centuries became an important sea power and was known as the “Pearl of the Adriatic.”
This is the second time recently that European authorities found a centuries-old shipwreck; archeologists found a 16th-century merchant ship off the coast of southern France.
