Shipwreck

In 1984, an exceptionally well-preserved shipwreck was found in the Wadden Sea. The flute-like ship probably sank at the end of the 16th century and has been named Scheurrak SO1, after the location on the Texel roadstead where it was found. The grain ship, which can stand comparison with the finest shipwrecks from the Age of Sail such as the Bremen Cog (1380), the Mary Rose (1545), and the Wasa (1628), has been excavated and researched extensively over the years.

A different perspective

Despite decades of research, the shipwreck had never before been looked at from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands made funds available for an interdisciplinary research project, in which researchers from Leiden's faculties of Archaeology and Humanities work together.

Two PhD students, Geke Burger (maritime history) and Rik Lettany (maritime archaeology), will for the first time combine and reconsider all the available evidence, and use new archival databases and modern archaeological techniques to shed new light on the material culture of the Baltic grain trade and the Holland shipbuilding industry at the turn of the sixteenth century. Both studies will use the concept of the ‘maritime-cultural landscape’ to emphasize the relevance of a single, exceptional shipwreck for the maritime culture of the Netherlands on the eve of the country’s Golden Age.

• global maritime history
• international trade
• logistics and trade
• maritime archaeology
• maritime history