Metallography, Microanalysis & Corrosion of the Athlit Ram
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Metallography, Microanalysis & Corrosion of the Athlit Ram M. R. Notis1, M. Hoban1, and D-N. Wang1 1
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015
ABSTRACT The Athlit ram, a bronze warship ram from a 2nd Century BCE Roman-era galley, was found in 1980 off the coast of Israel at Athlit, and is now displayed at the National Maritime Museum, Haifa, Israel. It meant to fit on the prow of a medium-sized oared warship. This ram is the only known surviving example of this ancient naval weapon. Inside the bronze ram some of the ship's wood is still preserved. We have recently studied a piece of the ram removed during early conservation. Remnant metal, corrosion products, and mineralized and pseudomorphed wood have all been found and examined by light optical metallography, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and microanalysis using energy dispersive x-ray mapping. The main corrosion product on the Athlit Ram is identified as covellite (CuS), and the entrained material is pseudomorphed cedar wood. Analysis indicates the lumen to be replaced by calcium carbonate and the cell walls to be replaced by covellite, consistent with the matrix.
INTRODUCTION Before the advent of gunpowder and the subsequent invention of cannon, a much cruder means of waging naval warfare was devised - the use of a battering ram mounted towards the bow of a ship. These weapons were thought to be a myth, much like other ancient stories of maritime battles, such as “Archimedes’ Death Ray,” until one of these bronze warship rams was found off the coast of Israel at Athlit, near Haifa, in November of 1980 [1]. This ram (figure 1), deemed the “Athlit Ram”, is 2.25 m long, 0.95 m high, and weighs 465 kg (1023 lbs) , and was determined to be from a 2nd Century BCE Roman-era galley. The ram is now on display at the National Maritime Museum in Haifa, Israel. The Athlit Ram would have most likely been mounted on the prow of a medium-sized oared warship at the waterline and would have been used to puncture the hull of enemy ships, causing massive damage. In order for this weapon to be functional, it had to fit very tightly to the prow of the ship, making a waterproof seal with the attached ramming timbers. This fact coupled with the extreme amount of force attributed to ramming other ships caused the ramming timbers to partially penetrate into the bronze ram. Due to this, some of the ship’s wood is still preserved within the corroded metal, as will be described below. Although the Athlit Ram is the first ram of this type to be found in archaeological context, they are well described in the literature [2], for example: - Aeschylus, The Persians 408-409: "Immediately ship against ship dashed its bronze-clad beak”. - Caesar, Civil Wars 2.3: "With a fleet of sixteen ships, a few of which were bronze" - Vergil, Aeneid 9.122-10.223: “Bronze prows had anchored at the shores" - Horace, Odes 3.1.37-40: "But Fear and Threats climb up with the master, and black Care doesn't withdraw from the bronze ship and sits behi
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