Row, Row, Row

We went to the Antiquities Museum in Arles today.  Arles is an old Roman town and they have a wonderful collection of Roman antiquities – statues, mosaics, weapons, sarcophagi.  A few years ago a fisherman found a bust of Julius Caesar in the Rhone river, one of the best ever discovered.

 

More recently, archeologists have been exploring the bottom of the Rhone, which runs right past Arles.  The river is big and slow but carries a lot of sediment from up north, making it hard to see anything.

Three years ago they discovered part of an old Roman barge that had sunk just offshore.  As they dug through the sediment they realized it was almost completely intact after almost 2,000 years!  The barge has been recovered and restored and the museum built a special wing to display it.  The exhibit just opened a few weeks ago so we were excited to see it.

The barge is amazing, over 100 feet long and held together with thousands of giant nails.  There is a great movie that explains how it was discovered, brought to the surface and restored.  How it survived so long is incredible.

The museum also has lots of the cargo that ships like this used to transport, especially the big Roman jars called amphora.  They often contained wine because the Romans were huge consumers.  That could explain why their empire lasted as long as it did.

KVS

Front view

Back view

Party at Virgil's place!