16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

56 16 th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology Laurent Grimbert 1 & Marc Guyon 2 1 Institut National de Recherche Archéologique Préventive, Inrap Midi-Méditerranée, France 2 Institut National de Recherche Archéologique Préventive, Inrap Auvergne-Rhône- Alpes, France; Centre Camille Jullian – CNRS, France Villenave-d’Ornon (Gironde, France). A shipwreck from the early Middle Ages The wreck of Villenave-d’Ornon was discovered in 2013 during an archaeological diagnosis carried out by Inrap (Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research) on the banks of the Garonne, a little upstream from Bordeaux. A first phase of excavation of the boat by Inrap took place in the second half of 2019, but the observations and the complete removal of the boat could not then be completed due to technical and meteorological constraints. The resumption of the operation is currently being studied. The 2019 excavation confirmed the remarkable state of preservation of the wreck, which is preserved over a length of 11.20 m, a width of 5.90 m and a height of 1.60 m. Only part of the stern is missing, over an estimated length of 3 or 4 m, which would return a boat with an initial length of around 15 m. All the structural elements have been precisely observed (keel, planking, mast step, beam...) as well as the connections between the elements, mainly by treenails but many nails are also present. The architectural analysis leads for the time being to restore a very robust boat (numerous and tight frames) adapted to the transport of goods whose na- ture remains, for the moment, undetermined. The presence of a keel is evidence of the ability to leave the river Garonne framework and carry out coastal shipping. Several radiocarbon dates enable us to place the boat between the second half of the 6 th and first half of the 7 th centuries.