Authenticity in the replica Athenian trieres

The building of a replica classical warship, the Athenian trieres, is the most ambitious project of experimental archaeology so far. The ship is building in a Piraeus yard to a design worked out from original sources and using the experience of the partial replica illustrated in ANTIQUITY in 1985 (Morrison & Coates 1985; and for the full story Morrison & Coates 1986, reviewed in this number). But how authentic is the replica? The project leaders set out here how their trireme will differ from the real thing. The result, they believe, is a craft which will faithfully copy a new and well-built ship. But it does use some modern materials; it should last much better than did the classical ships; and it will carry some wholly modern gear. It is no part of their experiment to see how fast an ancient ship rotted or how nastily an Athenian crew drowned when the rotting was complete.