Willem Barentsz ship finds

In the eighties and nineties of the 20th Century Russian expeditions found on Novaya Zemlya (the place where Barentsz and his men held there winter camp in 1596-1597) several parts of ship finds, which they related to the sunken ship of Barentsz just offshore the island of Nova Zembla. Members of the Russian Cultural Heritage Institute transferred the ship parts from Novaya Zemlya to their institute in Moscow. Experts of the Rijksmuseum identified some of these ship parts in 1994 of Dutch origin. Some parts have been dated by C14 method as 16th Century.

Introduction

In the eighties and nineties of the 20th Century Russian expeditions found on Nova Zembla (the place where Barentsz and his men held their winter camp in 1596-1597) several parts of ship finds, which they related to the sunken ship of Barentsz just outside the island of Nova Zembla. Members of the Russian Cultural Heritage Institute (Moscow) transferred the ship parts from Nova Zembla to their institute in Moscow. Some of these ship parts has been identified by experts of the Rijksmuseum in 1994 of Dutch origin. Some parts have been dated by C14 method as 16th century. In 2005 the ship parts has been giving on loan from the Russian Cultural Heritage Institute to the Arctic and Antarctic Museum in St. Petersburg.

This project, concerning exchange of knowledge and expertise on Integrated Conservation, will be executed on request of the Arctic and Antarctic Museum in St. Petersburg. It is subject to the Dutch Policy Framework on Mutual Heritage.

Aims

The project consist of an identifying mission to Petersburg to have a look (1) at the several ship parts and find out which parts of the wood can be dated by method of Dendro-chronology. This method is far more precise than the C14 method. Second (2) have a look at the state of the ship parts (degradation of the wood). Third (3) discuss the possibility of conservation/restoring the ship parts if the degradation is high. Discuss (4) the place where the conservation would take place: Russia or the Netherlands. And five (5) discuss the possibility of exhibit the ship parts in the Netherlands for a short or longer period.

Next step

With the knowledge of the wood research we can concentrate our future search for the remains of the ship of Willem Barentsz to the parts of the wreck in exhibition. Already agreed during the identifying mission is that the Dutch team will send a Letter of Intend to the director of the Arctic and Antarctic Museum which includes (1) the wood research at the museum, (2) the results of the wood research and (3) the willingness of cooperation from the Dutch and Russian side (i.e. the Museum) to concentrate on the remains of the wreck in exhibition by looking for a piece of sufficient number of tree rings for dating the wood and put effort in the degradation process of the wood by conservation and restoring methods. Both can be done in the Netherlands at Lelystad. And (4) exhibit the remains of the wreck after research and conservation at the National Ship Archaeology Depot at Lelystyad or the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The director of the Museum of Arctic and Antarctic will ask the Russian Ministry of Culture for permission for this project.

OBJECTIVES
Orientation and identifying mission on mutual Russian-Dutch heritage

RESULTS
Results of the dendrochronological research
The comparison of the tree-ring series of two samples between them (internal correlation) provided a relative dating of the series. The excellent synchronization between the series could indicate that both timbers originate from the same tree. If that were not the case, it is certain that the trees from which these timbers originate have grown under very similar conditions (probably in the same forest). These tree-ring series were averaged into the mean curve RPS2MMMM.
The comparison of the tree-ring series and their mean curve with the master chronologies resulted in the absolute dating of the timbers. The tree from were the timber o-13299/2 originates was felled in or after AD 1904, whereas the tree from the timber o-13299/3 (if it is a different one) was felled after AD 1890.3 These timbers cannot have belonged to a shipwreck built in the 16th century.