In an interview with Euronews, Prof Tobias Pflederer of the Bavarian Society for Underwater Archaeology (BGfU) discusses the discovery of wooden parts of a shipwreck in Lake Constance and what makes the find so special.
Off Lindau in Lake Constance, underwater archaeologists have discovered wooden parts of a shipwreck that are apparently much older than first assumed.
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"The tip came from a recreational diver who knows the area very well. He had already suspected that it might be a wreck," says archaeological research diver Prof. Dr Tobias Pflederer when asked by Euronews. Pflederer is a cardiologist in Kaufbeuren and a professor at the University of Erlangen, and also honorary president of the Bavarian Society for Underwater Archaeology (BGfU).
"What was particularly exciting was that we were really able to identify the wooden remains as a wreck. That was not at all clear from the outset. They could just as well have been other pieces of timber. But once several frames and fragments of the hull were protruding from the lake bed, the interpretation quickly became clear," explains Pflederer.
A frame is a load-bearing structural element of a boat, a ship or an aircraft. Connected frames form the hull of a ship, like ribs. The BGfU underwater archaeologists had previously discovered several, significantly heavier dugout canoes both in Lake Constance and in Lake Chiemsee, some of which are on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
The newly discovered medieval vessel appears to be between eight and twelve metres long. Its beam is around three metres.
The frames and other wooden parts in Lake Constance, Germany’s largest inland body of water, were found off Lindau near the border with Austria. The opposite shore belongs to Switzerland.
Even last year, and before the current heatwaves, the water level of Lake Constance was historically low.
A shipwreck from the late Middle Ages
What really surprised the underwater archaeologists was the age of the shipwreck. "We had actually expected a more recent date. There are already a few wrecks from the late Middle Ages in Lake Constance, but only very few – four so far. This wreck can therefore contribute further insights into shipbuilding and navigation on Lake Constance in the late Middle Ages."
Analysis of a small wood sample – carried out in consultation with the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation – showed that the wreck dates from between 1420 and 1450 AD, as the Schwäbische Zeitung also reports.
Underwater archaeologist Pflederer is extremely modest: "So far we have carried out only two dives and have done just an initial survey, in other words orthophotography and taking a wood sample from one of the frames. Using C14 radiocarbon dating we were then able to date the wreck to the 15th century AD."
Salvaging the wreck would be extremely expensive
Unlike the spectacular discovery of a Roman-era ship’s cargo in Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, there are currently no plans to raise the wreck from Lake Constance.
Pflederer explains: "Salvage always means that the parts of the wreck then have to be professionally conserved and preserved. That is an enormously expensive undertaking. Moreover, there is nothing more conserving and protective than leaving the wreck under water, and better still under a cover of sediment. A small-scale excavation is being discussed as a possible option, in order to identify the vessel’s construction method and its exact dimensions."
Further information on the association’s projects on several lakes can be found on the website of the Bavarian Society for Underwater Archaeology (source in German) (BGfU). The association has around 100 members, most of them volunteers. They include professional archaeologists and trained research divers, but also students, experienced recreational divers and people who pursue underwater archaeology as a hobby.
