16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

29 Zadar, Croatia | 26 September – 1 October 2021 Wojciech Borkowski 1 , Michal Grabowski 2 & Waldemar Ossowski 2 1 State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw, Poland 2 Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology University of Gdansk, Poland The Czersk Ship. Excavation of the large Vistula River vessel from Medieval Times During the summer of 2018, remains of a wooden shipwreck were excavated and recovered from an old river bed in Czersk (Masovian Voivodeship, Poland). The recovered wreck is one of the largest and best-preserved examples of sailing ves- sels, used on Vistula River for grain shipping, in a pre-industrial era. The story of the wreck has started almost 30 years ago. During the deepening of a small pond, located a few kilometres from Vistula River’s bed, the local workers accidentally began to recover old, oak timbers. The recovered elements, including part of the stempost, were finally reported to the authorities, which led to the first archae- ological excavations in 2009. Drainage of the pond revealed almost 30 m long wreck of a flat-bottomed barge. The vessel was in a good condition, preserved on its port side up to the gunwale and with almost intact stern section. At that time, the recovery was limited by a lack of appropriate conservation facility. None of the existing facilities in Poland was able to proceed conservation of such long shipwreck timbers. In 2018, by the efforts of State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw, in cooperation with University of Gdansk and Archcom Com- pany, the wreck of Czersk Ship could have been raised and properly maintained with the aim for its further exhibition. This presentation shows the results of an archaeological campaign con- ducted in 2018 – 2019 when the wreck was fully recovered and documented. With the use of three-dimensional recording methods, including photogramme- try and structural light scanning, elements of the Czersk Ship could have been examined in the highest level of details and resulted in better understanding of its construction as well as shipbuilding techniques used in old times on Vistula river.