Overview
- Researchers published a peer-reviewed analysis Friday in Frontiers in Materials that examined ten hull-coating samples with mass spectrometry and pollen identification.
- The team found coniferous pitch in every sample and detected one beeswax-and-tar mixture known as zopissa, a recipe linked in ancient sources to Greek shipbuilding.
- Coating layers grouped into four to five distinct batches, with the stern and center sharing one recipe and the bow showing three separate applications that point to successive repairs.
- Pollen preserved in the sticky pitch reflected Mediterranean and Adriatic landscapes, which supports earlier clues that the ship was built near Brundisium and later recoated along the northeastern Adriatic coast.
- The work is the first to pair molecular fingerprints with pollen from ship coatings, elevating organic waterproofing as evidence to reconstruct ship life stages, regional craft traditions, and port-to-port repair networks.