Athenian Trireme

[Starlightman]

Marina Zeas Project

A very interesting and promising project unveiling the history of the naval port of Athens. The Zea Harbour Project is a collaboration between the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, The 26th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and the Danish Institute at Athens.

There is also a great video here http://www.zeaharbourproject.dk/News-media/zea.wmv
which depicts the port in 3d animation.It is about 39MBytes.

Among other interesting finds, the length of the shipsheds found, caused a revision of the length of the trireme from 37 meters to 42-44 meters.


The base of the fortification that protected the port


A trireme shipshed.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Interesting could you give some more info on this?

[Starlightman]

off course my friend...

The Zea Harbour Project combines land and marine archaeology to obtain a full picture of the ancient Zea Harbour in the Piraeus, Greece. The ancient naval installation at Zea is among the largest Classical building complexes, and it accommodated the ship of the line in the Classical period - the trireme. The objective of this website is to introduce you to the work of the Zea Harbour Project and its most important results. The Zea Harbour Project is a collaboration between the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, The 26th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and the Danish Institute at Athens.



In the early fifth century BC, the vast Persian Empire set out to conquer the Greek world, and the growing conflict resulted in the Persian Wars. Themistocles, the leading statesman of the time, was convinced that the future of Athens lay at sea. He built a large fleet and a fortified naval harbour as a defence against the Persian threat. This fleet was to be based in the Piraeus, the harbour city of Athens.
We do not know exactly when Zea became a naval harbour, but it is reasonable to believe that the shipsheds in Zea housed some of the triremes financed by large amounts of silver found in the Laurion mines in 483/482 BC, as well as a number of the warships of the Delian League in the period from 478 BC onwards.
The shipsheds in the Piraeus were demolished by the Thirty Tyrants after the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. During the fourth century BC, the shipsheds were rebuilt. Zea, being the largest naval harbour in the Piraeus, had a total of 196 shipsheds.
In the struggle for power that followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Athens tried to regain her position as a major naval power. The Macedonians finally defeated the Athenians in the naval battle of Amorgos in 322 BC.
During the First Mithridatic War in 88-86 BC between Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontos and Rome, Athens sided with Mithridates. In 86 BC the Piraeus was besieged and sacked by the Roman general Sulla. However, Zea continued to function as a naval harbour. According to the writer Pausanias, there were still shipsheds in the Piraeus in the second century AD.
Further reading:
Simon Hornblower, The Greek World 478-323 BC, London 1993
Klaus von Eickstedt, Beiträge zur Topographie des Antiken Piräus, Athens 1991
Peter Green, The Greco-Persian War, Berkeley & Los Angeles 1998
Robert Garland, The Piraeus, Bristol 2002


see also this link for further infos

http://www.zeaharbourproject.dk/

also...
The Athenian Trireme, The history and reconstruction of an ancient Greek warship, J.S.Morrison and J.F.Coates

The Trireme Trust


description are in Greek...

more photos here

[Starlightman]

Athenian Trireme "Olympias"

ΑΘΗΝΑΪΚΗ ΤΡΙΗΡΗΣ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΣ

Some more photos from Athenian Trireme ship models...

[Phalanx300]

Are there any completely build replicas?

I know that we Dutch are rebuilding some Golden age Ships, at the Batavia werf I believe.

We already have one:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Starlightman]

Are there any completely build replicas?

I know that we Dutch are rebuilding some Golden age Ships, at the Batavia werf I believe.

We already have one:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yes...the trireme "Olympias"...

http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/trihrhs_en.asp

http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/rowing/trireme/ttintro.html

http://www.angelfire.com/art/archictecture/trireme1.htm

[Phalanx300]

Thats great! To bad it isn't used for sailing anymore though.

[paokmam]

Great topic! Thanks!

[Starlightman]

Thanks paokmam...

also...a plan of trireme...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Cal20]

Haha cool. Always wanted to try and sail/row one of them, be extremely hard I bet. Think a smaller version Trireme set off from Athens a couple years back, they were tracing one of the routes in Greek Myth, can't remember which. Anyone else remember this?

[Starlightman]

Haha cool. Always wanted to try and sail/row one of them, be extremely hard I bet. Think a smaller version Trireme set off from Athens a couple years back, they were tracing one of the routes in Greek Myth, can't remember which. Anyone else remember this?

i think you can't sail it alone,you need help from many members of TWC to do this...

It is a replica of ancient trireme...see above about trireme "Olympias"...

[Beorn]

There have been projects for Minoan ships, a miniature of "Argos" sailed some years ago from Volos( at about ancient Iolkos was) to the position of the mythical city of Colhis, in the Black Sea by wind and κουπια. The Minoan representation travelled from Crete to Piraieus some years ago, too.

[cpdwane]

There have been projects for Minoan ships, a miniature of "Argos" sailed some years ago from Volos( at about ancient Iolkos was) to the position of the mythical city of Colhis, in the Black Sea by wind and κουπια. The Minoan representation travelled from Crete to Piraieus some years ago, too.

Yes. Someone made a replica Phonecian vessel to try and replicate the supposed circumnavigation of Africa mentioned in Herodotus. I can't rememeber who it was or when they built it though.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Wow! This is really awesome! What an amazin find. I'd love to see what the reconstruction looks like when it's done.