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In Italy, in the gorgeous region of Umbria, close to the small
town called Narni, along its river Nera, during the 2005, a
group of archaeological enthusiast, recently has been found
the only ruin about Romans shipyard. Since today nobody hasn’t
known about the roman’s naval fleet and this discover
is going to rewrite a part of Romans’ history.
To let all the world knows about its importance, an association
has been founded by this group and it has called “Porto
di Narni, Approdo d’Europa” (Port of Narni, Landfall
of Europe)
The site needs to be valorized by strong investments because
for more than 2000 years has been under the weathering effects.
The Association , in order to save the integrity of the shipyard
, invites all the Organisation and the Universities to contact
us for giving to the humanity an important piece of our history
and our heritage.
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Why a shipyard in Umbria
Christian Armadori, after the discovered, did an appropriate investigations
about the motivations around the shipyard and in his book is possible
to have all the answers 1.The river Nera is the main affluent
of Tiber river and it becomes navigable exactly from the point
of the archaeological site, also Tacito has told us about Pisone,a
roman consol, who cameback to Rome by taking a ship from Narnia’s
river port
2. The presence of raw material such as good wood, iron mines,
free workforce and the secrets position made the site the best
for building warships.
3. The channel, parallel to the Nera river, is 280 metres long
, 16.5 metres large and probably 6-7 metres high, because there
are detritus for 2 metres at the bottom. In the middle is still
possible to see different size holes in parallel position respect
the others in the opposite wall, runningin for 13.5 metres from
the first to the last one .
4. Presence of ruins between the entered of the channel and the
river indicate a complex waterworks able to let the river get
in the channel as the warship was ready to navigate.
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Why do we think the shipyard was made during the First Punic
War ?
There are a series of reasons to say that, especially if you know
Roman naval history
very well. They were not people used to sail the sea, at least
till the
year 261 B.C. when they decided to fit out a powerful fleet. Romans
did it
in a very short time, and fastly they became able to fight by
sea like
Carthaginians. So at the beginning it was safer to fit out warships
in a
very hidden place, and Romans dominated all the territory around
without the risk to be assaulted. But when the war was over, and
the Mediterranean under their
control, Romans didn’t mind to keep the fleet in good condition,
they had
always preferred land battles, using just the warships of the
allies in case
of necessity. Only the First Punic War could justify a channel
with
that dimensions and in the same position, none of the classical
writers has
told information about the shipyards, and we wish our discovery
will be
useful to fill up that historical cognitive gap. It would mean
an other
prestigious evidence of the Narnia’s glorious past and one
more reason to
come here!
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