Antiquity author and Diving and Maritime Archaeology Officer at Bournemouth University Tom Cousins explores the exciting discovery of a rare example of a medieval shipwreck in English waters.

The sea of the Dorset coast is the final resting place for thousands of vessels, with evidence going as far back as the Bronze Age. However, most of these are undiscovered and are likely lost to the sands. Archaeologists from Bournemouth University regularly monitor the historic wrecks we do know about. During this work in 2019, our skipper, Trevor Small, suggested we dive an obstruction which he had observed becoming more prominent over the last few years. Looking at the description of the obstruction, we could see that it was first dived in the 1980s and described as a pile of stone, and since then had been ignored as a site of little interest. Upon diving the site, we were greeted by a massive pile of rubble over 6m in diameter and stacked a metre high, much larger than described in the original report. Just north of the mound, however, was a large ship’s timber surrounded by over twenty Purbeck Marble mortars, giving the site its name of ‘the Mortar Wreck’. Purbeck Marble is a marble-like stone sourced from southern England. It was highly desirable during the Middle Ages for producing high-status objects.

All the evidence pointed towards a medieval date, so plans were made to return to the site with a dendrochronologist the following year to see if we could get a date from the timbers. Despite Covid, we managed to get out on site. Whilst excavating the timbers we found more mortars and three grave slabs that looked brand-new. In addition, we found that remains of the ship itself was preserved underneath the mound sampling these timbers. This gave us a date of the mid-thirteenth century AD, meaning that, except for two Bronze Age sites, we had discovered the oldest shipwreck in England. Other finds included stone lamps, pot querns and even a possible portable altar. Further Covid delays meant that work stalled for two years until the site was designated as a protected wreck in June 2022.

Since the designation, further work has occurred on the site including excavation that revealed more ship’s timbers trapped under the mound, but they are at imminent risk of being destroyed by the marine life who see the site as a source of food and shelter. To slow this process down, any exposed archaeology was reburied under sandbags until the funding becomes available to do more work on the site. The grave slabs were recovered in June 2024 and more excavations and recoveries are planned, with the site forming a focus for the training of future maritime archaeologists studying at Bournemouth University.

All the finds recovered from the site will be accessioned by Poole Museum and will form part of their new shipwreck galleries due to open in 2025. In the meantime, a 3D model can be viewed on the BU sketchfab site.

Read the associated research, out now open access in Antiquity: The Mortar Wreck: a mid-thirteenth-century ship, wrecked off Studland Bay, Dorset, carrying a cargo of Purbeck stone by Tom Cousins.