Call for Papers: Late medieval sea vessels in Northern Europe

Call for Papers

Late Medieval Sea Vessels in Northern Europe –

Current Research Perspectives
 

International Workshop at the German Maritime Museum,
Bremerhaven
15 – 16 February, 2024

The 1962 discovery of one of the best-preserved examples of a late-medieval ship of the type cog in Bremen, and its conservation and presentation at the German Maritime Museum (Bremen Cog | DSM Bremerhaven) entail a continuous responsibility to foster research in naval history, material culture and the conservation of waterlogged wood. As one of our most essential exhibition pieces the Bremen Cog is an anchor for a future initiative of collaborative research in maritime culture: The already well-established international, interdisciplinary research relations regarding cog-type ships form an ideal foundation for experimentally co-developing a collaborative Digital Knowledge Platform.

With this international workshop as a starting event, the German Maritime Museum seeks to bring together scholars from an interdisciplinary range of research fields and topics for an update on the current state of research on such finds of our maritime cultural heritage. And it especially invites participants from institutions that would possibly be interested in collaborating on the development of this Digital Knowledge Platform.

The workshop is open to a wide range of academic and research contexts. Talk proposals which express an interest in interdisciplinary perspectives are especially welcome.

Topics addressed in the workshop will include the following:

CONSERVATION

- methods and challenges

e. g. analysis of the conservation of waterlogged wood

ARCHAEOLOGY

- maritime material culture in context

e. g. ship artillery, shoes, ceramics, wickerwork, tools in comparison with picture-sources, finds from onshore sites, trade and merchandise

- ship-/boatbuilding

e. g. caulking, sails, rigging, naval architecture

- mensuration and gauging

- shipyards

NATURAL SCIENCES

- materials used and their environmental aspects

e. g. wood, hemp, wool, moss, leather, pitch, tar, iron

LINGUISTICS

- terminology

e. g. ships and materials in contemporary sources and different languages

HISTORY

- trade and merchant-guilds

DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION

- documentation and reconstruction of ships/finds

Please send your title and abstract for a presentation of 20 minutes (single PDF, 200 words max. abstract, plus contact information, short CV, including research interests in bullet points) to
digitalisierung@dsm.museum not later than 30 November, 2023.

The conference language will be English.

For more information on the workshop please contact a.reis@dsm.museum