Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Scientists studied a very old ship. The ship sank about 2,200 years ago. It sank near the island of Ilovik, in Croatia.
Divers first found the ship in 2016. The ship's name is Ilovik-Parzine 1. It sank in the Adriatic Sea.
The ship's wood had a sticky coating on it. This coating kept water out. One part of the ship had pine tar. Another part had pine tar mixed with beeswax.
Scientists also found tiny pollen grains stuck in the old coating. Pollen comes from plants. The pollen helped scientists learn where the ship was built and fixed.
- shipwreck
- a ship that has sunk or been destroyed, often found underwater
- sink
- to go down under the water
- diver
- a person who swims underwater, often to explore or find things
- coating
- a thin layer of material put over something to cover or protect it
- waterproof
- able to stop water from getting in
- pine tar
- a sticky, dark substance made from heating pine wood, used to seal wood
- beeswax
- a soft, yellow wax made by bees
- pollen
- tiny yellow grains made by plants, often carried by wind or insects
Level 2 - Elementary
Researchers from France and Croatia have been studying an ancient Roman shipwreck called Ilovik-Parzine 1. The ship sank about 2,200 years ago in the Adriatic Sea, near the island of Ilovik in present-day Croatia. Divers first discovered the wreck back in 2016.
For thousands of years, sailors used a sticky, waterproof substance called pine tar, also known as pitch, to seal the wooden planks of their ships. Pine tar is made by heating pine wood, and it stopped ships from leaking or rotting in the water.
On this particular ship, scientists found something interesting. One section of the hull was coated with plain pine tar, but another section had a rarer mixture of pine tar and beeswax. This mixture is called zopissa, and it was described in ancient writings by the Roman author Pliny the Elder. Adding beeswax made the coating softer and easier to spread while it was warm, which was useful for patching up damaged planks.
Scientists also studied pollen grains that had gotten stuck inside the tar over the centuries. Because pollen comes from plants growing in specific places, it works almost like a fingerprint of a location. This pollen evidence suggests the ship was originally built near present-day Brindisi, in southern Italy, and that it was repaired several times as it sailed back and forth across the sea.
- hull
- the main body or frame of a ship, especially the part that sits in the water
- seal
- to close something tightly so nothing can get in or out
- substance
- a particular type of material or matter
- mixture
- a combination of two or more different things
- repair
- to fix something that is broken or damaged
- evidence
- facts or information that show whether something is true
- trace
- to find and follow the path or origin of something
- region
- a particular area of a country or the world
Level 3 - Intermediate
A team of researchers from France and Croatia has analyzed the waterproof coating preserved on Ilovik-Parzine 1, a Roman shipwreck that sank roughly 2,200 years ago in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Ilovik, an island in present-day Croatia. The wreck, first located by divers in 2016, has offered an unusually detailed look at ancient shipbuilding technique.
Sailors across the ancient world relied on pine tar, also called pitch, to keep their wooden vessels seaworthy. Produced by heating pine wood until it releases a thick, sticky resin, the substance was applied along the seams between hull planks, preventing leaks and slowing the wood's decay over years of use at sea. On Ilovik-Parzine 1, however, researchers identified two distinct coatings applied to different parts of the same hull: one section sealed with plain pine tar, and another with a rarer compound mixing pine tar with beeswax.
This pine-tar-and-beeswax blend, known as zopissa, appears in the writings of the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder. Incorporating beeswax made the mixture noticeably more pliable and easier to work while heated, a practical advantage for shipwrights patching or resealing planks during repairs rather than sealing an entirely new hull.
Perhaps the most striking finding came from an unexpected source: pollen grains trapped within the tar for over two millennia. Because pollen reflects the specific vegetation growing in a given place at a given time, it effectively functions as a geographic signature. Analysis of these grains points to the ship having been originally constructed near present-day Brindisi in southern Italy, and further suggests it underwent multiple repairs as it crossed and recrossed the Adriatic over the course of its working life.
- vessel
- a ship or boat, especially a fairly large one
- resin
- a sticky substance produced by certain trees or plants
- seam
- a line where two edges, such as wooden planks, join together
- decay
- the gradual process of something breaking down or rotting
- compound
- a substance made by combining two or more different materials
- pliable
- easy to bend or shape without breaking
- shipwright
- a person whose job is to build or repair ships
- vegetation
- the plants growing in a particular area
Level 4 - Advanced
A collaborative team of French and Croatian researchers has undertaken a detailed chemical and botanical analysis of the waterproof coating preserved on Ilovik-Parzine 1, a Roman-era shipwreck that sank approximately 2,200 years ago in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Ilovik, an island belonging to present-day Croatia. First located by divers in 2016, the wreck has since become an unusually rich source of evidence for reconstructing the practical craft of ancient shipbuilding, a subject more often inferred from literary fragments than from surviving material itself.
Throughout antiquity, mariners depended on pine tar, or pitch, a viscous resin extracted by heating pine wood, to render their vessels seaworthy, applying it along the seams between hull planks to forestall leakage and retard the wood's inevitable decay. What distinguishes Ilovik-Parzine 1 is the discovery that its hull was not uniformly treated: one section bears a coating of unadulterated pine tar, while another was sealed with a considerably rarer compound blending pine tar with beeswax.
This latter substance, known as zopissa, finds explicit mention in the writings of the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, lending the archaeological find a rare correspondence with the textual record. The incorporation of beeswax rendered the compound markedly more pliable when warmed, a property of evident practical value to shipwrights tasked with resealing or patching individual planks during a vessel's working life, as distinct from the wholesale sealing of a freshly built hull.
The investigation's most illuminating dimension, however, emerged from an unlikely source: pollen grains entombed within the tar across some two millennia. Because pollen assemblages mirror the vegetation present in a specific locale at a specific moment, they function, in effect, as a botanical signature capable of anchoring an artifact to place. Analysis of these grains indicates that the vessel was originally constructed in the vicinity of present-day Brindisi, in southern Italy, and that it subsequently underwent repeated repairs as it plied the Adriatic, a finding that transforms a static hull fragment into a record of an itinerant working life.
- botanical
- relating to plants or the scientific study of plants
- viscous
- having a thick, sticky consistency that flows slowly
- forestall
- to prevent something from happening by acting in advance
- unadulterated
- pure, with nothing else mixed in or added
- correspondence
- a close similarity, connection, or match between two things
- assemblage
- a collection or group of things, especially gathered or found together
- anchor
- to fix something firmly in place or connect it securely to something else
- itinerant
- traveling from place to place rather than staying in one location
Talk about this article with KatePractice this story's vocabulary in a real spoken conversation with your AI tutor