16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

49 Zadar, Croatia | 26 September – 1 October 2021 Andri Evripidou & Stella Demesticha Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cryprus Visualizing shipbuilding features through textual evidence: The case of the 19 th century Aegean brigs During the 19 th century, while seaborne trade networks were growing in the Med- iterranean, several Aegean islands along with some mainland harbours main- tained active shipyards to meet the increasing demand for merchantmen, mostly brigs. The most dynamic shipbuilding center of the region was in Ermoupoli, the capital of the island of Syros. Illustrations of brigs on paintings of that era are common and historical sources provide abundant information on shipbuilding. Material evidence, however, is limited in ships’ parts exhibited in museums. No Greek brig has been excavated thus far, so there is a serious gap in our knowledge of 19 th century Aegean ship’s architecture. The lack of ships and shipwrecks of the period could be partly counterbal- anced by the wealth of textual evidence. Shipbuilding contracts, a valuable source for the socio-economic conditions of the shipbuilding industry, contain detailed descriptions of ship’s components with their measurements and positioning in each ship. Such information provide unique insights into the conception and ma- terialisation phase of shipbuilding’s chaîne opératoire , which is not otherwise preserved in the historical or archaeological record. To investigate this argument further, ten contacts for brigs built between 1832 to 1857 in Ermoupoli’s ship- yards were analysed. The processes and data included in them were tabularized, and were then used for the digital partial reconstruction of each one of the specif- ic brigs in a 3D environment (using AutoCAD and Rhinoceros softwares) This paper discusses the results of this experimental reconstructions, with an emphasis on the challenges faced during archival sources’ examination, the decisive role of the digital tools in their technical analysis and the importance of visualization for the study of nautical heritage.