The owner of the Roman bronze ship found in Austria –

A copper on a Roman-era miniature ship was found in the Old Austrian town of Salzburg. It’s a decor with iron spikes above, doors or walls of a city villa. Bronze objects are usually melted for later reuse, so one of this size rarely survives. It is the largest bronze artifact discovered in Salzburg, Rome since 1943.

Last year, the object was discovered in the excavation of Neue Residenz at the historic site, the new Salzburg branch of the Belvedere Museum in Vienna. The remains of the Roman villa date back to the second or third century AD, where the bow of a copper ship was found, found under the rubble of collapsed walls.

Because the object deformed and ruptured, it was initially suspected that it might be an oil lamp in the shape of an ancient ship. The object was exposed to the microscope using a scalpel and an ultrasonic fine chisel. The unstable bronze material is then reinforced with a specially adapted acrylic resin. The surface also provides a protective coating of microcrystalline wax.

At the museum’s archaeological seminar, “there was then reshaping and reconstruction of spectacular objects based on the plastic copy,” explained Maximilian Bertet, the museum’s archaeological conservator. “So it’s clear to me that it’s not an oil lamp, but a decorative one.” The object represents the farming of a Roman warship and carries its ram.

It was discovered that the ship’s farming was cast in copper, initially with iron spiked walls or doors. The spikes are fixed in the hollow prow with a complex overlay. Decorative plates are also fixed between the wall and the stern. “The attention to detail on the ship’s cultivation made a profound impression, even clearly showing the railings,” the museum noted.

The stern of the ship is a symbol of conquest and political status. The Roman Forum platform delivered a political speech on the platform, the podium, decorated with paint from captured ships, even named after them. Author Titus Petronius describes a miniature podium that adorns the door posts of the restaurant Trimalchio, the protagonist of his 1st century novel Satyricon.

The high quality of the work, the complexity of casting this shape, its decorative mounts and iron reinforcement emphasize that the owner of the house must be an elite member. The symbolism emphasizes how far Roman cultural and political portraits spread across the provinces as the empire developed.

Bronze artifacts will be on display starting in 2028 after conservation at the new Iuvavum Archaeological Museum in Salzburg. Starting from 2028. Reconstructing its original shiny golden patina will be shown with it so visitors can see what they look like.

Signs of Salzburg and its surrounding areas date back to the Neolithic era, and after the Roman city of iuvavum 15 years after the invasion, several Celtic settlements were established today in the old town of Salzburg. It was granted the municipality (rights of independent municipal government) in AD 45, and is one of the most important cities in Norilicum Province. In the war between Marcus Aurelius against Marcommani and other Germanic peoples, it was destroyed in 170 AD. When the Italian Gothic king Odoacer provided sanctuary to Italy, the city never fully recovered from the Marcomanik attack, and many of the Roman population abandoned the city in 448 AD.