{"title":"Damaging a trireme by ramming: The kinetics","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104678","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The ram, made of a bronze casing over a wooden structure, projected from below the waterline at the bow of the trireme. Its main purpose was to cause structural damage to the hull of the attacked ship and ensure large-scale water penetration. A ‘first principles process’ infrastructure, based on engineering principles and the energy balance concept of physics, was developed to estimate the minimum velocity required to damage an attacked ship by a ram. Deriving the velocity estimate was based on analyzing the construction details of the attacked ship and assessing its capacity to withstand the impact of a designated ’ram–head’ length. The model led to a ’velocity range’ spanning from 1.3 to 3 knots. This interval results from considering a spectrum of possible values for the parameters involved in the equation, extracted from shipwreck archaeological data. This velocity range is well within the capabilities of a trireme, as estimated by researchers and proven experimentally by the crew of the <em>Olympias</em>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48150,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Science-Reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Archaeological Science-Reports","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X24003067","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"N/A","JCRName":"ARCHAEOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The ram, made of a bronze casing over a wooden structure, projected from below the waterline at the bow of the trireme. Its main purpose was to cause structural damage to the hull of the attacked ship and ensure large-scale water penetration. A ‘first principles process’ infrastructure, based on engineering principles and the energy balance concept of physics, was developed to estimate the minimum velocity required to damage an attacked ship by a ram. Deriving the velocity estimate was based on analyzing the construction details of the attacked ship and assessing its capacity to withstand the impact of a designated ’ram–head’ length. The model led to a ’velocity range’ spanning from 1.3 to 3 knots. This interval results from considering a spectrum of possible values for the parameters involved in the equation, extracted from shipwreck archaeological data. This velocity range is well within the capabilities of a trireme, as estimated by researchers and proven experimentally by the crew of the Olympias.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports is aimed at archaeologists and scientists engaged with the application of scientific techniques and methodologies to all areas of archaeology. The journal focuses on the results of the application of scientific methods to archaeological problems and debates. It will provide a forum for reviews and scientific debate of issues in scientific archaeology and their impact in the wider subject. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports will publish papers of excellent archaeological science, with regional or wider interest. This will include case studies, reviews and short papers where an established scientific technique sheds light on archaeological questions and debates.